Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israel Minister Says Reform Jews Not ‘Real Jews’

Israel’s Religious Services Minister David Azoulay said in an interview that Reform Jews cannot be considered Jews.

“A Reform Jew, from the moment he stops following Jewish law, I cannot allow myself to say that he is a Jew,” Azoulay, of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas Party, said Tuesday morning on Army Radio.

“These are Jews that have lost their way, and we must ensure that every Jew returns to the fold of Judaism, and accept everyone with love and joy,” he added.

Azoulay spoke with Army Radio two days after Israel’s Cabinet reversed regulations reforming conversion policy that were passed by the previous government.

“Those who follow Reform Judaism living in the Diaspora are in the majority people who are wrong,” he said, stressing that halacha, or Jewish law, determines the rules for conversion. “We want to take care of all those Jews returning to Judaism according to Jewish law,” he said.

Last month Azoulay in an interview called Reform Jews “a disaster for the people of Israel,” during a discussion of the Women of the Wall.

Following the meeting, the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism sent a letter to Netanyahu asking him to publicly reject Azoulay’s statements.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.