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Reform and Conservative ‘Wreak’ Damage: Rabbi

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar wants to scuttle the state’s plan to recognize some Reform and Conservative rabbis and pay them with public funds.

Amar plans to convene the Chief Rabbinate Council in an attempt to recruit Israel’s Orthodox rabbis to fight the decision. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein advised the High Court of Justice about the decision last month, and it was given the status of a high court ruling.

Meanwhile, the Knesset Finance Committee, which is chaired by United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, is not hurrying to approve funds for this purpose, and Religious Services Minister Yaakov Margi has accused two justices who heard the Reform Movement’s petition of acting out of personal interest.

In an interview last night with the Kol Berama radio station, which is identified with Shas, Amar said the Reform and Conservative movements “uprooted all the foundations of Torah” and that there’s a need “to explain the terrible damage that they wreak.”

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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