A delegation of 14 rabbis from all Jewish streams in the United States met with senior government officials over the past <> hours. Among others, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Minister of Heritage, Otzma Yehudit member Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu.
The representative, on behalf of the Coalition of Zionist Rabbis (ZRC), represents hundreds of community leaders from the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox streams who support continued ties with Israel and Zionism. The movement is led by Conservative Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt of Maryland, who was invited with his colleagues to visit the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to learn about the implications of the Abraham Accords.
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"We were in these two countries at the beginning of the week, we were received very warmly and we saw firsthand the fruits of the Abraham Accords, which we will tell our colleagues and our communities about, when we return home," Weinblatt told Israel Hayom.
After the visit to the Gulf, the group arrived in Israel and met with all the top echelons of the government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, Diaspora Minister Amichai Shekli and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu. Eliyahu's office made public about the meeting, but did not mention that it was attended by rabbis and even Reform rabbis.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and members of the delegation, photo: Shlomi Amsalem//AM//Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Eliyahu stressed his opposition to acts of violence by Jews against Arabs and said he condemned the phenomenon. In response to a question from one of the rabbis about stopping the "Israeli Shabbat" project, Eliyahu said, "This is fake news. I made it clear in that interview that the project would continue." He noted that this is the second time he has held a meeting with American Jewish leaders from all streams, "with the aim of strengthening the connection between American Jewry and the State of Israel."
Weinblatt told Israel Hayom that the group decided to meet with Minister Eliyahu knowing that others in the Jewish community oppose it. "We know that there are those who call for a boycott of members of the Israeli government and support a reassessment of relations, but we feel that more than any other time, now is the time to talk and meet. It's time for dialogue. We don't want to add division and disagreements, but to heal them, and the way to do that is through open and honest dialogue, and to express our concerns and better understand Israel," Weinblatt says.
Amichai Eliyahu and members of the delegation,
He noted that the legal reform came up extensively in all the meetings they held with the Israeli leadership. "We learned that the issue is more complicated than reported, and that the government is looking for a compromise, removing some of the problematic elements in the spirit of 'you caught a lot – you didn't catch.' The dialogue was open and it was clear that there may have been mistakes (on the part of the government) in the way things were run. We expressed our belief that the most important contribution of American Jewry regarding the current crisis is to promote all sides to come to the table and find a logical compromise, and not to push one side or the other as some are trying to do."
It should be noted that alongside the activities of the Zionist Rabbinical Coalition, there are increasing calls in the Reform movement to strengthen ties with Israel. Rabbi Amiel Hirsch, a member of the leadership of Reform Judaism, recently convened a conference in New York in which he warned that severing ties with Israel would lead to the split of the Reform stream and its loss
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