Reform Movement President in the United States Rabbi Rick Jacobs is applying pressure on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not to acquiesce to chareidi demands in Knesset regarding an egalitarian prayer area and giyur. The members of the Reform community are major donors to the State of Israel and its institutions and they are using their money to threaten and pressure PM Netanyahu and other state leaders.

Reform and Conservative Movement leaders in the USA and Israel expressed outrage after the cabinet decision to freeze the situation at the Kosel, thereby bringing an end to plans to construct an egalitarian prayer area. However, they are not just accepting the decree, but this time around they have decided to fight back in the hope of creating new realities in Israel.

When PM Netanyahu announced on Erev Shabbos that the Conversion Bill was on hold for six months, he was clearly responding to mounting pressure of Jacobs and his colleagues.

Jacobs remains firm in his demands for equality at the Kosel announcing “We don’t want to pray at a second class Kosel…”

He accuses the chareidim of trying to continue their stranglehold over religious services, which he feels is destructive to other streams of Judaism. He warns against placing conversion exclusively in the hands of the chareidim. He announced last week that nothing will sever their ties with the State of Israel, as well as promising to turn up the pressure in the Reform Movement’s efforts to change religious realities in Israel.

Jacobs is backed strongly by Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, who has spoken out strongly against the decision to freeze the Kosel status, which he realizes delivers a blow to non-Orthodox Jews throughout the Diaspora. He is also backed by many opposition and coalition MKs in Knesset.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)