Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday met with Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism in the United States, and with Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, the Chief Executive of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly to discuss kick-starting the framework agreement for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. The meeting – which was held after a nearly six-year rift between the sides, ever since former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shelved the plan – was described by the participants as cordial. Ultra-Orthodox representatives assailed the meeting, criticizing it as another blow to Judaism.
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Jacobs and Blumenthal said after the meeting: "We expressed our unconditional support for the State of Israel and made clear our expectation of the prime minister that he take steps to show he is committed to the State of Israel indeed being home to all streams (of Judaism), in Israel and the Diaspora."
Anna Kislanski, the CEO of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, said it was a "historic meeting from the perspective of recognition of the liberal streams of Judaism in Israel and the Diaspora. The prime minister spoke with us at length and acknowledged our need to pray in our own way at the Wall without partitions (between men and women) and in an egalitarian and respectful manner."
Rakefet Ginsburg, CEO of the Conservative-Masorti Movement in Israel, called for a compromise.
"We must ensure as a society that Jewish men and women from all across the globe feel at home here and can pray according to their customs and beliefs. Compromise is not a limitation; it is a way to preserve strength in a diverse society."
As stated, Haredi lawmakers lambasted the meeting. "It's not for nothing that these sides came together, as they are two birds of the same feather," said MK Moshe Gafni, chairman of the United Torah Judaism party.
MK Ori Maklev called the meeting "another absurd performance from the prime minister, who is incapable of addressing what's important, only focusing on the most inconsequential of issues. The prime minister does not project stability and is selling his values like a leaf in the wind."
"After embarrassing himself in presuming to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, Bennett is trying to mediate the Reformists' destructive invasion into Israel's religious institutions," said MK Yakov Asher, adding that the "Bennett government is turning itself into a red carpet for the destroyers of religion to walk across and lay waste to the Jewish character of the Land of Israel."
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