Israeli official says Reform Jews are not really Jews

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Religious-Services-Minister-Reform-Jews-arent-Jews-408224

By JEREMY SHARON \ 07/07/2015

[Israeli] Minister for Religious Services and Shas MK David Azoulai has made incendiary comments once again about non-Orthodox Jews, saying that he could not describe them as Jews.

Speaking on Army Radio on Tuesday, Azoulai said that only people who follow Jewish law can be described as Jewish and described non-Orthodox streams as “people who try and falsify” the Jewish religion.

“Any Jew who observes the Torah and commandments is for us a Jew…A Reform Jew, from the moment he does not follow Jewish law I cannot allow myself to say that he is a Jew,” said the minister.

When radio host Razi Barkai noted that non-Orthodox Jews form the majority of Jews in the US, Azoulai said that they were Jews who had “erred along the way,”

“Those of the Reform denomination living in the Diaspora are in the majority people who have erred,” he repeated. “We would like for them to return to the lap of Judaism and we will accept them gladly and with blessings."

Azouali made similar comments last month when he said that Reform Judaism “is a disaster for the Jewish people.”

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The head of the Reform movement in Israel Rabbi Gilad Kariv said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must condemn Azoulai’s comments and threaten him with dismissal from his post as minister if he repeats them.

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Kariv added that the Israeli public was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the religious establishment and the haredi political parties and that Azoulai’s comments about Reform Jews would lead to greater public support for “full equality for all Jewish denominations in Israel.”

Yizhar Hess, the director of the Masorti (Conservative) movement also called on the prime minister to censure the minister.

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