Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, issued a second consecutive day of public criticism of senior Israeli officials on Thursday, condemning comments made in the Knesset by May Golan, Israel’s social equality minister, against Reform Judaism.
Golan, speaking on Wednesday during a debate with opposition lawmaker Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi and member of the Knesset opposition, said he was “marrying dogs in your delusional synagogues.” She also mocked Kariv’s association with Women of the Wall, the group that advocates for egalitarian prayer practices at the Western Wall.
Leiter called Golan’s comments “disgusting and reprehensible, worthy of excoriation and rebuke,” noting his own status as an Orthodox Jew.
“Theological, political and ideological differences are fine, even necessary for a healthy people. But there is a line that cannot be crossed,” Leiter wrote. “It is a line that divides debate from hate and separates altruism from populism.”
The ambassador said he plans to meet with Reform movement leaders in the United States “soon” in order to “apologize on Israel’s behalf.”
While Orthodox Jewry is the fastest-growing segment of American Jewry, the Reform movement remains the largest Jewish denomination in the United States.
Leiter’s statement followed controversy over earlier remarks in which he called the advocacy group J Street “a cancer within the Jewish community,” prompting calls for an apology from Reform leaders, including Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi David Saperstein, director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
On Wednesday, the ambassador accused Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of “reckless grandstanding” after he circulated videos showing himself mocking detainees from a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli authorities.
The U.S. government on Tuesday imposed sanctions on several organizers of the flotilla over alleged ties to designated terrorist groups, including Hamas.
The footage showed Ben-Gvir confronting activists with their hands bound while accusing them of supporting terrorism.
“Ben-Gvir’s antics take a sledgehammer to our diplomatic efforts while Israel’s enemies gleefully jump on every unfortunate nonsense to discredit and demonize,” Leiter wrote.
