Responding in an agitated tone, MK Moshe Gafne told Kol Chai Radio host Mordechai Lavi on Thursday morning 2 Adar I that allegations that he and his colleagues have led to state recognition of the Reform Movement are untrue.
“I am against the Reform and always have been and nothing here has changed”. In an even more agitated tone Gafne at some point refused to speak about the topic, explaining that he and his chareidi colleagues could have easily created a coalition crisis over the matter of the egalitarian prayer area near the Kosel but the Supreme Court would have stepped in anyway so nothing would have been accomplished. He added that for those who feel the Supreme Court’s authorization would have been better than the chareidim bringing about this situation, they simply do not understand the status of the Reform Movement has not changed and this unwanted prayer area in no way represents de facto representation of the Reform Movement.
Gafne explained earlier in the interview that the state has already compelled accepting members of non-Orthodox streams of Yiddishkheit in the nation’s religious councils and elsewhere, and while this is an unwelcome reality, this too does not represent recognition of these movements.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
10 Responses
If so what does represent recognition?
It is MK Gafne and his cohorts who brought about this fiasco in the first place. The WoW had existed for decades and had been coming to the women’s side at the kotel and doing their thing every rosh chodesh without comment. Suddenly, When UTJ found itself out of the coalition, Gafne & Co. went on a verbal rampage attacking just about everything in sight. Among their targets were the WoW. Following the verbal attacks of the UTJ MKs, some charedim who frequented the kotel started to physically attack the WoW, both verbally and physically. In response, instead of toning down their rhetoric, Gafne & Co. gleefully ramped it up. To no one’s surprise, large charedi protests followed. UTJ and some of its more unruly followers had managed to turn the previously anonymous WoW into victims who were suddenly getting a great deal of public attention and, following that, public support. This support gave the WoW political clout they they had never even dreamed of achieving and with the recognition and political clout that Gafne & Co. had bestowed upon them the WoW started making demands – and here we are at this sorry juncture.
A real kidish Hashem keep it up
Sorry, but the government you are in just did. You own it.
And u do recognize in the Arab camp partners in peace???
Yagel Libi, that is untrue. WoW did not hold “minyanim” for decades. And it is WoW who ramped up the hype, placing demands for their “religious equality”.
The fact that Gafne ( and the rest of the religious in the government who compromised with these reshaim) made any agreement with WoW, AUTOMATICALLY shows acceptance.
Gafne should be ashamed of himself. How can agreements be made with those who have been a major cause the spiritual Holocaust of Jews and the resultant assimilation of their desire to change and ignore halacha and Yehadus?
And it is even more insulting that they have compromised one of the most holiest of Jewish sites!
Yagel Libi ,
Hypocrite that you are!
We very nearly lost the Kosel to these forces of impurity
And which side were you on?
It’s your ilk that was busy making excuses for WoW ,while we were fighting and finally winning -barely!
Everyone is invited to do a search with your moniker
And Gafni deserves some credit for at least being on the right side!
#6- They’ve been at it since 1988. That decades in my book. And yes, the WoW did finally take advantage of the situation. But it was Gafne & Co. who created it. Its all fairly recent history. Not hard to look it up.
‘We very nearly lost the Kosel to these forces of impurity’. No ‘nearly’ about it. They are going to receive an area. The question is – how did this happen and who’s fault is it? If, when you wrote: ‘while we were fighting’ you were indicating that you were one of the violent thugs at the kotel, or were supporting them, then this is directly on you, together with Gafne & Co.