Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s daughters, Rivka Chikotai and Adina Bar-Shalom, sharply criticized the Shas leadership in an interview with Channel 12 News, claiming that the party has abandoned their father’s path and legacy.

The interview came amid the Attorney General’s decision not to allow state funding for the memorial marking Rabbi Ovadia’s passing, citing its proximity to the elections and concerns that the event could become an election rally.

Chikotai said the decision does not prevent the family from holding the memorial, but only from having it funded by the state. “All that is happening is that they won’t fund, at the state’s expense, a memorial that will turn into an election rally," she said.

She argued that the issue could have been avoided if Shas had transferred control of the event to a member of the family. She pointed to her brother, Rabbi David Yosef, saying he could have invited the public and held “a proper memorial worthy of his name and spoken about our father."

Chikotai said Rabbi David Yosef could have organized the memorial as a family event, adding that her father “is much more loved by the public today." She accused Shas of abandoning his legacy.

“Shas is not following his path. It is not preserving his legacy," she said.

She also described what she said were difficulties faced by the rabbi’s daughters when visiting their father’s grave.

“We are daughters, so they put up a partition and keep the women far away. When we want to come and light a candle for our father, they don’t let us because we are women," she said.

Chikotai stressed that she grew up in a home where sons and daughters were treated equally. She recalled that family members drank from the Kiddush cup according to age, “not according to sons and daughters at all." When she encountered a different custom in her husband’s family, she said, she changed it.

Bar-Shalom claimed that Shas underwent a change following their father’s death.

“They changed the path," she said, arguing that the party now places greater emphasis on religious observance while neglecting “the mitzvah of treating one’s fellow man." She also accused the party of adopting characteristics associated with Ashkenazi, Lithuanian and Hasidic religious communities.

Chikotai said she believes the distancing from her father’s legacy began as early as the week he died. According to her, her husband, Yaakov, was not allowed to deliver a eulogy for Rabbi Ovadia because he wears a knitted kippah, despite being the rabbi’s son-in-law.

Chikotai said her children serve in the IDF and recalled her father’s pride in them.

“I even remember the pictures of Rabbi Ovadia, how he hugged the grandson who received an IDF award for excellence. How proud he was," she said.

The sisters also addressed Rabbi Ovadia’s position on military service. They said their father blessed Rivka’s children and sent them to hesder yeshivas. When they consulted him, he told them, “Go to hesder yeshivas. That is your path."

Bar-Shalom referred to a halachic ruling by her father in his book "Yechaveh Da’at," claiming that he addressed the question of hesder yeshivas and full-time yeshivas. According to her, his ruling was that during wartime, because of the principle of preserving human life, “everyone closes the Talmud and everyone goes out together to fight."

Asked whether Rabbi Ovadia’s position would have changed following October 7, the sisters said it would not have.

“If he were with us, he would send the young men to fight," Rivka said. Adina added, “Unequivocally," referring to what she said her father had written about going to war when lives are at stake.

Regarding Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, Adina said she no longer has a relationship with him. She said that since he closed the college founded by her father, she has not spoken to him, adding that the sisters had restrained themselves for years and refrained from speaking publicly about the matter.

Bar-Shalom said their mother, Rabbanit Margalit, also disliked Deri and would leave the room whenever he entered.

According to Bar-Shalom, her mother called Deri “a hypocrite" and “a swindler," and she claimed that their father had also used those descriptions in the past.

Chikotai was asked why, after years of remaining silent, the two sisters decided to speak publicly.

“They finally drove us crazy. We couldn't take it anymore," she said, adding that she had hesitated before agreeing to the interview.

At the end of the interview, Chikotai claimed that people she meets on the street tell her they know the Shas leadership is not good, but continue to vote for the party because of her father.

She said her father would not want them to vote for a party that does not follow his path.

Chikotai also claimed that core curriculum studies were important to Rabbi Ovadia and that he believed those who do not study Torah should enlist in the IDF.

“Core curriculum studies were very important to our father," she said. “It was important to him that anyone who does not study Torah enlist, and that is not happening."

If Rabbi Ovadia had heard people saying, “We will die rather than enlist," she claimed, “he would have been furious."