JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli Orthodox rabbi accused adherents of less strict Reform Judaism of "sticking claws" into his followers, in an unusually harsh letter published Friday.
Shlomo Amar, the chief Orthodox rabbi of Israel’s Sephardic Jewish community, urged rabbis to pressure the government to keep followers of the Reform and Conservative movements out of religious affairs.
"They are sticking their claws into the people residing in Zion (Israel) and trying to dictate our lifestyle," he wrote in excerpts of the letter published on the Ynet news website.
"The most difficult thing is the plague of assimilation, which is eating up our pure and holy nation," he says.
"There are countries in which it has reached terrible dimensions, and now this horrible disease is being spread in our holy country as well and no one pays attention."
He goes onto blame "those who call themselves liberal and reform, and their friends and supporters."
The letter adopts a softer tone near the end, saying that "they are our brothers and our flesh and blood… We love them truly and pray for God to guide their hearts in the right direction."
Adherents of the differing currents of Judaism have been up in arms in recent weeks as the government has mulled a law that would recognize the Orthodox rabbinate’s exclusive authority over conversions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze the proposed amendment last month in a bid to diffuse the conflict between the Orthodox, who make up the majority in Israel, and adherents of Reform Judaism, which is the dominant strain in the United States.
Israel’s official chief rabbinate includes Amar, the top Orthodox rabbi of the Sephardic community of Jews of Middle East and North African heritage, and the top Orthodox rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Western Jews.
