Reform Leader Demands Netanyahu Reprimand MK
MK David Rotem said Reform movement is 'another religion' and that its members 'arenโt Jewish.' ADLโs Foxman calls remarks 'offensive and unjustified.'
The President of the Union for Reform Judaism Rabbi Rick Jacobs is demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein reprimand MK David Rotem and depose him from his position as Chairman of the Knessetโs Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
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Jacobs described as โoffensive and unacceptableโ Rotemโs statements on Tuesday by which the Reform movement is โanother religionโ and that its members โarenโt Jewish.โ Jacobs said that Rotem โdoesnโt know what heโs talking about and doesnโt understand the damage that he causes.โ
The Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League Abe Foxman also blasted Rotem urging him to retract his โinappropriate, offensive and unjustifiedโ comments. โAmong many U.S. non-Orthodox Jews,โ Foxman said, โrejectionist rhetoric of this kind fosters divisiveness and feelings of alienation towards elements of Israeli society.โ
Jacobs told Haaretz that members of the United States Congress who are also enraged by Rotemโs statements are to send a letter of protest to Netanyahu against the statements made by โa member of his coalition and his own Likud-Beiteinu Party,โ as Jacobs described him.
Rotem, an Orthodox Jew, made the reported remarks during a discussion held by the committee on Tuesday on proposed changes in the law on child adoption. He was responding to a query about the Reform movementโs interests in these changes.
โRotem is engaging in deligitimization of the largest Jewish movement in the US,โ Jacobs said. โAnd while he may not be directly responsible for acts of vandalism committed against Reform synagogues in Israel, his words surely have an impact on the hostility towards the Reform movementโ.
Jacobs said that Rotemโs use of the term โanother religionโ was especially alarming as it is taken from the language used in the Law of Return. And they come at a โparticularly delicate timeโ, he added, when the Reform is engaged in talks about prayers at the Western Wall, conversion and other matters.
