The Movement for Reform Judaism

“When is the Government of Israel going to stand up for Judaism and its values, the integrity of the Jewish people, its founding principles and very raison d’etre?” asked Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield, head of The Movement for Reform Judaism, in a letter sent on Friday to the Israeli Ambassador, Zvi Heifetz, questioning the place in the Israeli Government of representatives of those who advocate and practice unlawful violence.  The full text of the letter follows.

PRESS RELEASE

London, 13 November 2006

Dear Ambassador,

Normally I would write to you as Zvi, a trusted and respected friend. Today, I am writing to you as the Ambassador of the State of Israel, the state I love and respect.

I was late into work this morning because I found two articles in the Jewish Chronicle so disturbing that I couldn’t stop reading and re-reading them. 

The first was about the gay pride rally in Jerusalem and the need to provide unprecedented security involving between 9,000 and 12,000 police officers. “On Tuesday night”, said the report “Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, himself a charedi politician, needed a police escort …. after he was pelted with stones”. As I drove into work, the Today programme interviewed a charedi rabbi who said that since gays are an affront to everything he holds dear, he didn’t need even to answer the question about whether the use of violence was justified.

The second report sat beside a colour photograph of Prime Minister Olmert and Avigdor Lieberman. The report included Lieberman’s advocacy for the complete separation of Israel’s Arab minority; his rejection of an ethnically mixed Israel; and his admiration for the Cyprus model which involved forcibly driving thousands of people from their homes. Prime Minister Olmert disassociated himself from the remarks but has only just invited the political party Yisrael Beiteinu to join the Government and made Lieberman Minister for Strategic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister. 

The same Today programme read out an email from a listener saying, “Surely Judaism of all religions understands the dangers of prejudice and violence against minority groups”.

The world is in the grip of an ever rising tide of fanaticism and fundamentalism which is destroying lives and the very credibility of the three faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It stands in total contrast to the moving, life enhancing and profoundly religious words of the Declaration of Independence: ‘The State of Israel … will maintain complete equality of social and political rights for all its citizens, without distinction of creed, race or sex. It will guarantee freedom of religion and conscience, of language, education and culture.’

When is the Government of Israel going to stand up for Judaism and its values, the integrity of the Jewish people, its founding principles and very raison d’etre?

Rabbi Bayfield was responding to the fact that the charedim are represented in Government, the Mayor of Jerusalem himself being a member of the charedi community, and Avigdor Lieberman has just joined the Government. He commented: “Shouldn’t one of the defining qualifications for being included in the Government of a democratic state be that you do not advocate or practice the unlawful use of violence?”

For further details, please contact:
Andrea Newman, Movement for Reform Judaism Public Relations Officer

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