A Short Tribute

Question: Some twenty years ago an Ashkenazi man came to live among us in Gilat, having married a Sephardi (Tunisian) woman. He followed his Sephardi wife's customs on every matter for he knew nothing of his forefathers' customs, he also did not wish to follow their customs. They had, thank God, three children, two of them boys who 'earned the crown of Torah' and rose in sanctity and awe of Heaven. Somebody told one of the boys that he was to follow Ashkenazi custom, his father being Ashkenazi, and he came to me asking what he should do, both brothers having been my pupils when they were young and having since entered senior yeshivas; they are saintly in all good things, may God be their support, Amen.
Answer: Before asking me about the sons, ask about the father himself. Will he follow Ashkenazi custom or continue to follow his original custom? …Although the [book] HaPanim Me'irot states in part B paragraph 60 on page 121 that an Ashkenazi who acts lenient contrary to the RAM"A [Rabbi Meir Abulafia] must repent, our Master and Rabbi Rishon LeZion [Maran Rabbi Ovadia Yosef] wrote in Yabia 'Omer that this is certainly the case in their original places of abode, courts and palaces, but in the Land of Israel and its surroundings, where Maran's instruction has been accepted, one is certainly permitted to follow local custom in the place one resides…He wrote so in Avkat Rochel paragraph 212 as well, that Ashkenazim should follow Sephardim, because when the Jewish settlement was initiated the Sephardim were a majority, and Ashkenazim gradually increased in number little by little…Here, in Gilat, we have no independent Beit Din and all follow Sephardi custom…and since the father himself is permitted to follow Sephardi custom, his sons – who since their birth have followed this custom – are not to return to their forefathers' custom.