Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Thursday, April 20, 2023

US Reform chief says May Golan as NY consul will ‘harm not help Israel’s cause’

20 April 2023, 6:56 pm 4 Edit

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, stands in his office in New York in May 2022. (Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel)

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for tapping far-right lawmaker May Golan as the next consul general to New York.

“We need a thoughtful, diplomatic, morally credible new consul general in NY. May Golan is none of those,” tweets Jacobs. “Her brand of Zionism is antithetical to the majority of our community. She will harm not help Israel’s cause.”

Golan, a member of Likud who also ran unsuccessfully for Knesset with the far-right Otzma Yehudit, first rose to prominence by advocating for deporting African migrants and refugees living in south Tel Aviv, once referring to herself as a “proud racist.”