Israeli Reform Movement decries deal handing Maoz ‘Jewish identity authority’

By Judah Ari Gross 27 November 2022, 9:15 pm

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Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.

The Reform movement in Israel comes out strongly against the coalition agreement between Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the homophobic Noam party Avi Maoz, which will give the latter control of a to-be-formed “Jewish identity authority” in the Prime Minister’s Office.

“We remind the presumed head of the [Jewish identity] authority that there is more than one way to be a Jew or Jewess. Avi Maoz, who got a job with excessive funding, from the [presumed] prime minister-elect will not decide for millions of Jews and Jewesses in Israel and the Diaspora what those ways are,” the movement says in a statement.