Rabbi Karol Efraim Sidon (born August 9, 1942) is a Czech Rabbi, writer and playwright. He is the current chief rabbi of the city of Prague and of the Czech Republic.
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Born and raised in Prague he began studying at the Academy of Musical Art in Prague in 1960 where he began writing film scripts, and radio plays for Czech public radio - Český rozhlas. Up to 1968 he worked as a producer for Czech puppeteer Jiří Trnka. In the same year, Sidon's first book, "Sen o mém otci" ("Dream about my father") was published, in which the author deals with his being brought up without his Jewish father Alexander Sidon, who perished in the Terezín ghetto (his wife was a Christian). In 1977 he was a signatory to Charter 77. He received the Jiří Kolář prize in 1978.
In 1983 he emigrated to West Germany and converted to Judaism after studying Jewish studies at the Heidelberg university. He became ordained as a Rabbi after studying for a time in Israel. He returned to the Czech republic in 1992, where he became chief rabbi of Prague. He is married to Marcela Třebická, and is the father of the actress Magdalena Sidonová.
In Prague in 2005 tensions developed between Chabad members and its rabbi Rabbi Manis Barash and Efraim Sidon. The Old New Synagogue in Prague's ancient Jewish Quarter became the scene of an emotional dispute between members of the Chabad movement and locals backing Karol Sidon, chief rabbi of the Czech Republic. The conflict led to violent brawls and hospitalisations on a number of occasions.[1] Sidon was eventually returned to his post.[2] In 2004 Tomáš Jelínek, the director of the community council, incompetently fired Sidon as Rabbi of Prague giving the post to young Chabad rabbi Manis Barash. A grassroots campaign from community members led to the deposition of Jelinek as the community director. Jelinek then asked a religious arbiter in Israel to rule on the case who ruled in favor of Rabbi Barash. Sidon's supporters argued that the case was void since Jelinek had lied to the Judge telling him that the community board had been behind his actions in firing Sidon and appointing Barash. However on 21 November 2005 he was reelected as the chief Rabbi of the city following the protracted dispute with Chabad.[3] Deputy chairman of the community Jakub Roth told the press: "this is part of the local Chabad’s striving to take over the community’s religious life. We have seen an ugly foray of Chabad in their attempt to take over the Old-New synagogue."[2]