ICEJ NEWS REPORTS:
Reform Jews outraged as Israeli minister declares they aren’t Jews
Israeli Minister for Religious Services and Shas MK David Azoulai caused a storm of controversy on Tuesday when he told Army Radio that non-Orthodox streams of Judaism are really “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,” he explained. “Those of the Reform denomination living in the Diaspora are in the majority people who have erred. We would like for them to return to the lap of Judaism and we will accept them gladly and with blessings.” His comments came a month after he described Reform Judaism, the dominant stream in the US, as “a disaster for the Jewish people.””We do not have any expectation from Minister Azoulai, since from the very beginning of his tenure he has taken every opportunity to create division and argument,” Reform movement in Israel chief Rabbi Gilad Kariv Kariv told The Jerusalem Post. “Our expectations are that the prime minister will take steps against Azoulai and tell him that if he repeats these sentiments he will be fired. The ball is the prime minister’s court and this is a test of how serious he is.”