Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israeli Signs Attacking Reform Jews Stir Anger, Fear — And Legal Action

A banner attacking Reform Jews, hung near a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan, is sparking fear in Israel and legal threats from a liberal Jewish group in the U.S.

The banner, hung on Wednesday, reads, “A Reform grandfather = an assimilated father = a goy grandson,” according to a report in the Jerusalem Post. The text suggests that Reform Judaism leads to assimilation, and was hung by a Israeli national-religious group calling itself Hazon.

There’s an American Jewish environmental group with that same name. On Thursday, that Hazon sent an email to its supporters, saying it had delivered a cease and desist letter to the Israeli organization. Hazon is the Hebrew word for vision.

Reform leaders warned that the banner could lead to violence against progressive Jews in Israel. In a statement, the president for the Israeli branch of the Reform movement, the Israel Movement for Reform & Progressive Judaism, called the banner part of an “incitement campaign” against Reform Judaism.

“We are not discounting the possibility that the unceasing verbal incitement against us will lead to actual violence against our members and synagogues as has happened in the past, and we therefore call on the Orthodox establishment and leaders of the Haredi political parties to publicly distance themselves from this campaign of hatred,” said Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the group’s president.

“I wanted to let you know that our lawyers have now served a cease-and-desist letter on this new ‘hazon,’” wrote Nigel Savage, the American Hazon’s executive director. “We have spent twenty years associating the word ‘hazon’ with so much that is good and right in Jewish tradition; and we indeed registered the name Hazon as a trademark, nearly a decade ago. We don’t want anyone to think that they can randomly fan flames of hatred in our name.”

(The American Hazon uses office space leased from the Forward Association, which publishes the Forward.)

The Israeli Hazon has called in recent weeks for protests against women praying at the Western Wall, and posted an anti-gay banner in Jerusalem reading, “A father and a mother = a family. The courage to be normal,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

The organization has also sponsored Facebook at text message ads, according to the Jerusalem Post. It says it aims to return “the Jewish character to the national agenda in Israel.”

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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.