Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Reform Delegation Holds ‘Candid’ Meeting With Netanyahu

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A delegation from the Union for Reform Judaism had a “wide-ranging and candid conversation” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, the group said.

The delegation, led by the URJ’s president, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, met with Netanyahu for an hour on Sunday, according to a statement issued by the congregational arm of the movement at the end of a weeklong leadership mission to Israel.

During a discussion of issues of religious pluralism in Israel, Netanyahu told the delegation that he had appointed government minister Tzachi Hanegbi, who attended the meeting, to help resolve issues between the haredi Orthodox parties and the Reform movement and other liberal groups to allow the plan for egalitarian prayer at Robinson’s Arch at the Western Wall to go forward.

The delegation, which met Thursday in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, stressed its support for the two-state solution as it had during its meeting with Abbas. It also discussed “concerns about the expansion of settlements,” the statement said.

The Reform leaders also expressed “concern about maintaining a bipartisan American consensus in support of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.”

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.