Incoming Jewish Agency head walks back calling intermarriage a ‘plague’

The incoming chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel says his remarks comparing intermarriage to a “plague” had been misunderstood.

On Sunday, Isaac Herzog used the Hebrew word for “plague” to describe marriages in the Diaspora between Jews and those of other faiths and said there must be “a solution” to the issue.

But in an interview Wednesday with the Forward, Herzog said he was using it as a slang word and “didn’t mean it in any negative terms.”

Negative reactions to his original remarks had “distorted the meaning and intention of what I said. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, no matter which stream he belongs to, if he wears a skullcap or not,” Herzog said.

On Sunday, the Israeli opposition leader was approved to succeed Natan Sharansky as the head of the quasi-governmental organization.

— JTA