'Remove the reformist': Likud MK hints in debate that Reform Jews are not really Jewish

Likud MK Galit Distel Atbaryan on Monday implied in a Knesset debate that Reform Jews are not real Jews.

During a session of the Subcommittee for Jewish Thought in the Education System, which she chairs, Distel Atbaryan ordered The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv removed from the committee while saying, “Remove the Reformist, [the] Jews here want to continue.”

The removal came after Kariv said that girls should be allowed to wrap tefillin as part of an initiative to allow tefillin stands in secular schools. In Orthodox Judaism, tefillin are reserved for boys from age 13, but Reform Judaism allows all genders to wear tefillin.

“The hateful attack and loss of composure by Distel testify to her and her coalition partners’ convoluted Jewish worldview – a zealous, misogynistic, isolationist, and resentful Judaism,” Kariv said.

“We will not allow this view of Judaism to take root in our children’s schools. We will introduce them to a tradition that embraces diversity, humanity, and inclusion and that serves as the meeting point between tradition and renewal,” Kariv said.

'I will prevent the takeover of the education system'

“Listen carefully, Gilad Kariv. As long as I am leading the Subcommittee for Jewish Thought in the Education System, I will personally prevent the takeover of the education system by Reformist organizations. No matter how much you talk about religious coercion, Israeli students will know the Bible. No matter how much you try to instill fear in the secular public, Israeli students will know the biblical story,” she said.

“No matter how much you lie, distort, incite, hate, and sow discord, Israeli students will return to learning about their identity and knowing their sources. Because of fear-mongering by people like you, schools in Israel have simply stopped teaching the Bible.

“My committee is changing this reality and leading a real and exciting reform. And I am immensely proud of this achievement. The committee is inclusive and invites everyone: secular, traditional, religious, ultra-Orthodox – everyone.

“The only thing it does not include is populists like you, who hate Israel and try to impose the minority’s opinion on the majority, all in the name of pluralism. You are a joke.”

Distel Atbaryan’s comments were not unprecedented in the Knesset. Members of its ultra-Orthodox parties often ridicule Kariv, who is a Reform rabbi, and accuse him directly or indirectly of not being a “real” Jew.

Gusti Yehoshua Braverman, representative of the Reform Movement at the World Zionist Organization, said that Atbaryan's remarks are "not only offensive and cruel, they reflect they reflect a deep and deliberate alienation toward millions of Jews in Israel and around the world who identify with Reform and Conservative Judaism.

"As a Zionist woman, a Reform Jew, and a public representative of the World Zionist Organization, I utterly reject this statement, which disgraces the Knesset and the core values of the Jewish people,״ she concluded.