Israeli envoy to US rebukes Likud minister who attacked Reform Jews while defending crime family member

For the second time in days, Israel’s envoy to the United States condemns a minister in the government that appointed him for lashing out at Reform Jews while defending a member of an organized crime family who is a prominent activist in the ruling Likud party.

In remarks from the Knesset rostrum on Wednesday, Social Equality Minister May Golan of Likud railed at The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, who is a reform rabbi, claiming that Kariv can’t measure up to convict Rafi Kedoshim because “you marry dogs in your crazy synagogues.”

Writing on X, Ambassador Yechiel Leiter states that he denounces Golan’s remarks “in the strongest terms.”

“As an Orthodox Jew and as Israel’s representative to the United States, I find her words disgusting and reprehensible, worthy of excoriation and rebuke,” Leiter says, adding that while “theological, political and ideological differences are fine… there is a line that cannot be crossed, it is a line that divides debate from hate and separates altruism from populism.”

“Too many are crossing the line. Mai Golan’s statement is one of them. I will visit with leaders of the Reform movement soon, in person, to apologize on Israel’s behalf,” adds Leiter, who a day earlier joined other top Israeli officials in denouncing far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over a video of him taunting bound Gaza flotilla activists who were detained.