Jerusalem – Knesset Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said Wednesday that he will block any attempt to transfer state funds to non-Orthodox institutions involved in preparing converts to Judaism.
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“The Reform Movement is not a legitimate form of Judaism,” Gafni said in a telephone interview. “The Reform are a bunch of treacherous backstabbers to Judaism. They are jokers who operate without hierarchy and without rules.”
Gafni insisted that “MKs are not a bunch of marionettes who will do whatever the Supreme Court tells them to do. I will block any attempts to provide state funds to Reform.”
The Finance Committee chairman said that in Tuesday’s decision, which ordered the state to fund non-Orthodox conversion institutions along with Orthodox ones, the High Court of Justice had “blatantly interfered in matters that are solely within the jurisdiction of parliamentarians.”
“These are issues that go to the very roots of defining who is a Jew and touch on the very foundation of the State of Israel as a Jewish state,” Gafni said.
He added that the court’s decision to compel the state to fund non-Orthodox conversion institutes was a slippery slope that was liable to undermine the Jewish character of the state.
“The Supreme Court does not care about the future of the Jewish people. They have a specific philosophy that says that everyone is entitled,” he said. “Funny that while the court thinks anyone can be a rabbinic judge, it does not think that anyone can be a Supreme Court justice.”
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, executive director of the Reform Movement in Israel, said that “Moshe Gafni is one of the prominent examples in Israeli public life of how religious faith becomes a source of hatred and prejudice, instead of a source of love for the other and respect for humankind.”
“These violent attacks against Reform Judaism are evidence of who Gafni is and emphasize the embarrassing fact that this man is an elected official in Israel,” Kariv said.
He pointed out that Gafni would probably not have a say in the allocation of state funds to Reform and Conservative conversion institutes, since 20 percent of the NIS 1.5 million budget for private conversion institutions had already been set aside.
This sum is in addition to the NIS 21m. provided for the Joint Institute for Judaism, which employs Reform and Conservative teachers along with its majority of Orthodox teachers.
“Gafni should know that he, like all other Israeli citizens, must adhere to the law. He is probably just showing off to his friends and supporters in Brooklyn,” Kariv said.
Religious Services Minister Ya’acov Margi (Shas) refused to comment on the High Court’s decision, saying that the Prime Minister’s Office, and not his own, was responsible for conversions.
However, the court’s decision set a precedent for the obligation to fund all religious services in an egalitarian manner, whether they be Orthodox, Reform or Conservative. This precedent could lead to the religious services minister being forced to use some of his budget to pay salaries to non-Orthodox rabbis. He may also have to begin funding the construction of synagogues for Reform and Conservative communities.
There are about 200 neighborhood rabbis who receive a salary of between NIS 4,000 and NIS 10,000 a month. City rabbis can earn as much as NIS 30,000 a month.
Religious councils pay these salaries and provide other religious services. The councils receive their budgets from the Religious Services Ministry (40%) and the local government (60%). The religious councils also receive money from various fees, such as those on marriages, ritual slaughter and burials.
For close to a decade, no new state rabbis have been appointed. Rabbis who have quit or passed away have not been replaced. This is part of a Treasury-led plan to gradually cut state funding of religious services in general.
Jewishjournal ran an article a few weeks ago about how Reform and Conservative rabbis in the U.S. can’t find jobs when they graduate from the Hebrew Rabbinical College, as temples are cutting back and many are closing down. Offer them the same salary as an Orthodox rabbi who is a melamed in a talmud torah and see how fast they run away.
Rabbi Gafni was wrong to use such insulting language to describe another group of Jews who are in error. However this does not excuse the same insulting language used by Gilad Kariv and his compadres throughout their entire career.
I feel bad for the poor unsuspecting fools who think they are actually converting under reform rabbis
The Slippery Slope is when jews? who think they are orthodox spread hate amongst fellow jews, and then wonder why non – jews hate jews so much. This is not torah at all. This is hatred.. The right has continually spread this poisonous thinking for years. Can you say ‘teens at risk’? jews who think they are rabbis open their mouths about Lipa, and other nonsense, but when it comes to real issues and acting like a human being (forget about jewish behavior) they are eerily silent and are nowhere to be found. Shame on all of them! It is time to eradicate this Poison & Cancer immediately!
The reform rabbi is right. Sometimes leaders like Gafni should know when to shut their mouths rather then display their impotence for the world to see.
Not a dime should go from the state to these so called city and neighborhood rabbonim. They should stop feeding at the public troth. With government money comes government rules and control As to this idiot Gafni, he should resign as an MK for expressing such sinas chinam for other yidden. This despicable name calling calling by individuals who claim to be religious leaders has got to stop.
He’s 100% right what does reform have with judiasim? But what role should religion play in a govt. Is a better question the govt should not be in the marrige or conversion business & should not support religious council they should operate like the USA
“The Finance Committee chairman said that in Tuesday’s decision, which ordered the state to fund non-Orthodox conversion institutions along with Orthodox ones, the High Court of Justice had ‘blatantly interfered in matters that are solely within the jurisdiction of parliamentarians’.”
Wrong! The secular state, run by non religious Jews and Arabs has interfered with Judaism, a subject that they have no belief in, and no right to dictate policy on. How’s this- mai’oivai tichachmani: Let the secular state pass a law defining “who is a Moslem”. When you see how the Moslems respond, you should learn from them that is the way a Jew should respond to heretics meddling in his religion.
here we go again.. gafni points out what reform stand for and all they can answer is ‘hate, hate’ so if a christian comes and starts giving deyous on jewish issues and wont be permitted they will yell ‘hate, hate..’ what immature jerks.
#2 on you kind of thinking see posters on article VIN’ few days ago ‘reform clergy ….rabbi lamm’ and you can read retorts to your non arguments
HI – Ford foundation and New israel fund which is Ford – are behind all of the non-Jewish “Judaism” promoting in israel.
i’m fed up with hearing from commenters about “sinas chinom”, they obviously can’t transalate, sinas chinom means hate for no reason, there could not be a better reason for sinoh than here. see rambam avodo zoro 10:1 “heretics it is a mitzva to destroy them by hand.. because.. they turn away the people from Hashem like yeshu hanotzri and tzodok and bytus and their students, shem reshoim yirkov”. and gafni makes a vey good point that while the court says anyone can be a rabbi, not anyone who may have a different point of view then their extreme leftist liberal viewpoints can be on the supreme court. It is also a disgrace that the call themselves a democracy when the laws enacted by the democratically elected government can be overturned by the non elected bagatz. It is more like a dictatorship with beinish and her cronies being the dictators.
However one wants to sugar-coat it , the glaring fact is that the reform movement undermines , uproots and destroys Judaism. It is a false and dangerous misinterpretation of Torah. It is a feel-good ,semi-religious concoction of ideas by people who don’t want to adhere to Torah standards. No other major religion tolerates watered-down “liberal” movements within its religion , be it Catholic or Islam.Nor should we. Especially we.
GM and Chrysler should have learned a lesson from the Rabbanut.
Once you accept goverment money they OWN YOU!
Stop state-sponsored religion before the state stops religion.
OK, now that you have all vented against the reform movement, do you feel frummer now? Did it raise your level of ahavas torah and yiras shomayim? Did it make you a better yid?
I hope so, because it sure didn’t do anything to bring the yiddin we have lost to the reform movement any closer to avodas haborai.
It is critical that we never lose sight of the fact that most of the followers of this movement do not know any better. It is the LEADERSHIP that needs to be taken down. They need to be publicly be exposed for the frauds that they are. As for their followers who do not know any better… we should embrace them as our own and do our best to be an example to them. Say what you want about kiruv programs (I know there are some who don’t like them), but that is how you show people the right way.
Well, this is what happens when the state gets into the religion business. Is Reform “real” Judaism? They say yes; Gafni says no. However, regardless of who is right, Gafni is very likely to find himself outvoted on this issue– Israel, after all, is a democracy, and one in which Gafni and his fellow Orthodox remain in the minority. He may wish to choose some more conciliatory language before opening his mouth again; he’s going to lose this fight.
Why doesnt the Goverment declare Reform and Conservative serperate religions along the lines of Moslims, Druze, Eastern orthodox Christians and Samaritans?
They would then be free to form thier own communites under thier own religious jurisdiction.
This move would have the following benefits:
1- Legally seperate these people as a faith community from Judaism. Call them Reformers and Converservatists. Whatever you want. Any conversion, marriage, bris, and kashrus (not that they do these things anyway) would be recorded as seperate. This would allow Rabbonim to clarify who is halachically Jewish without the whole ideological battle coming into play. People who convert Reform would be listed as Reform. If they wish to marry Jews, they would need proper conversion.
Its the same if someone from another religion wants to marry a Jew in Israel.
2- No Bagatz intervention. Reform and Conservtivatists would lead thier own affairs. Female clergy: do your own thing. No mechitza: do your own thing. Bar mitzva your dog? whatever. Give smicha to giraffes? go ahead,
They could run thier affairs as they like without resorting to legal publicity stunts attacking Orthodox.
3- Funding. As a seperate faith from Judaism, they would be entitled to funding for thier communities based on thier population in the same was that other faiths get state funding. Need the funds for your community? Ok as a seperate faith group you are entitled to build your temple as you see fit. This would eliminate accusations that the Orthodox “hold a monopoly” on state funding.
4- It also would have the added benefit of bringing proporation to the size of these communites in Israel. Lets be honest: these communities are tiny compared to the relative population in Israel. They mostly Anglos and a fellow sabra travelers in Ramat Aviv. As a small community, they would not be entitled to equal state funding that is entitled to larger faith communities. The arguement that funding should be made available for thier temples in areas were they do not have a significant presence would be eliminated. For example, Want to build a Reformist temple in Jerusalem? hmm ok lets see the population count of reform lists 2 people. This does not qualify for state funding for a bulding. Ok Ramat Aviv? you have 50 people who qualify for small state funding. Want a Reform school in Ashdod? sorry there is 1 person listed as conservative. You dont qualify.
5- No proslytising. Its against the law to prosletize another religion in Israel. Want to practice Reform? Ok fine in private. Just dont go to the Bagatz demanding funding to teach Reform in schools to Jewish children as a valid Jewish choice.
6- Aliyah. Want to make aliyah and bring your non-Jewish spouse. Sorry you converted Reform or your father converted Reform.
Something similar has been done before recently in Jewish history. If Im not mistaken Rav Hirsch z’tl legally seperated the German Orthodox community from the Reformers of his day in Germany.
Its a painful idea and we should seperate the individual halachic Jews as Jews from these groups and give them kavod and mekarev them the same as we do for Jews involved with Christian groups or cults. But these groups are not Jewish. They do not belive in the written or oral Torah. All they do is bring moral and ethical confusion to Jews and confuse uneducated Jews with thier ideas. Set the standard for Judaism
What does everyone think about this idea?
Anyone familiar with Reform practice will tell you the following: their services are a cheap imitation of ‘Messianic’/Christian norms and styles. Every mitzvah there is merely a ‘suggestion,’ chas ve shalom. You don’t have to do anything, except being a ‘good person’ and following their feel-good way of thinking and behaving. Even their development as a group is Christian-like. Their reformers wanted not only something that emulated Christianity in appearance, but also in essence. Sunday services, organ music, an appreciation of the ‘Historical Yeshu,’ throwing away mitzvos and the Torah in favor of ‘social justice and prophetic values,’ more modern happy-clappy Evangelical style songs written by Debbie Friedman, all make this a sad mockery of real Judaism. Their clergy are ignorant and know nothing except Torah trope, how to give a good sermon, and maybe a basic academic/Jewish Studies knowledge of a few areas. While there are efforts to reintroduce mitzvos by a few people like Richard Levy, most are nonobservant and treat shabbos like all other days of the week, in addition to not keeping 2 days of yom tov. At least Conservative has adhered to higher standards among the clergy- although their membership is gone. The only good thing to come out of Reform in my opinion is Solomon Bennett Freehof, who took a salary as their “non-binding posek” for many years and actually wrote very good, traditional tshuvos which are evidence of the fact that he did all of his learning with Orthodox rabbonim in Pittsburgh.
Gafni isw 100% right, but he should not have said it that way. They are not tinok shenishbu,but chotim and poshim of klal yisroel,good people but defunct Jews. Every single reformed jew knows he is a choteh,and perpetrators of mamzarim