Meir Rekhavi

Meir Yosef Rekhavi (born 1962) is a British born Karaite Hakham and author.

^[1]==Biography== Born in Leeds, England, Rekhavi came from an Orthodox Jewish family which had migrated to northern England from Tukums, Latvia via Germany in the early 1900s. His original name was Martin Furman.^[2] In 1981 Rekhavi began to question the authority of the Oral Torah. From 1984 Rekhavi was mentored by the Karaite Hakham Mordechai Alfandari in Jerusalem.

Rekhavi is the Chancellor of the Karaite Jewish University based in Switzerland and a founding member of the University, which was created in November 2005.^{[citation needed]} In July 2007 Rekhavi served on the Beth Din (Jewish religious court) of the Karaite Jews of America that performed the first conversions of non-Jews to Karaite Judaism since 1465.^[3] He is also the Hakham of the Karaite Jews of Europe, sits on the Karaite Religious Council in Israel, and acts as an advisor to the Karaite Council of Sages. Rekhavi currently lives in Beer Sheva, Israel with his family and worships at the local Karaite synagogue.