US rabbis slam ‘ignorant’ MK who compared Reform Jews to mentally ill

The rabbinic arm of the US Reform Movement condemns “disturbing and ignorant” comments by an ultra-Orthodox Knesset member who compared Reform Jews to the mentally ill.

Railing yesterday in the Knesset against a court ruling on allowing non-Orthodox converts access to public ritual baths, UTJ lawmaker Yisrael Eichler said: “Not every mentally ill person can come to the operating room and decide the rules of medicine and force the hospital to have an operation by whatever way works.”

The Central Conference of American Rabbis says in response that “MK Eichler’s disturbing and ignorant comments yesterday are both insensitive and backwards.”

The statement adds: “At the very moment that hundreds of Reform rabbis from North America are in Jerusalem celebrating the vibrancy of Reform Judaism in Israel and calling for tolerance, the MK’s comments are an unfortunate reminder of how far we still have to go to achieve equality for all Jews in Israel and around the world. We condemn these comments and the worldview they represent.”