The Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, dismissed the Reform Movement after a Supreme Court ruling last week acknowledging the reform and conservative conversion carried out in Israel.
“What is Reformation? It is not Jewish, ”Yosef said on Saturday in footage broadcast by Hebrew media.
‘When a reformed convert comes before me after I have married a Jewish woman, I send her away without a divorce. “She does not have to divorce, the marriage is invalid,” he said.
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Reformed and conservative Jews “have nothing, no chariots and nothing else,” he said.
According to Kikar Hashabbat, an ultra-Orthodox news website, Yosef delivered a weekly lesson at a synagogue in Jerusalem this week.
The Supreme Court ruling in the bombing last week recognizes reformist and conservative conversions carried out in Israel and has caused a stir in the ultra-Orthodox community.
The decision requires Israel to grant citizenship to those in the country who convert to Judaism under non-Orthodox protection. It will have little effect on the ground but control the rabbinate’s ultra-orthodox dominance over conversions in the country.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders do not view the Reform movement as an authentic form of Judaism and do not recognize Reform rabbis.
Attacks on Reformed Jews by ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, Israeli leaders are nothing new. A top priority of Haredi politicians in recent decades has been to preserve the monopoly of Orthodox rabbis over official religious ceremonies in Israel and to prevent the government from recognizing the liberal Jewish denominations – reformist and conservative – that represent most American Jews.
Yosef has made a history of provocative comments, including against Reform Judaism, women, the Supreme Court, and black people.
He called Reformation inagogues a form of ‘idolatry’ and said that the movement ‘falsified the Torah’; suggested that secular women behave like animals because of their immodest dress; and questions the authority of the Supreme Court over rulings regarding religion, while promising to ignore its rulings.
Last year, Yosef caused public outrage after questioning the Judaism of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. In 2018, Yosef came under fire after comparing Black people to monkeys during his weekly sermon, a remark that led to calls for a criminal investigation.
