Diaspora Affairs and Education Minister Naftali Bennett says Israel’s relationship with Jews in the Diaspora is in a “dire state” over this week’s cabinet decisions to hold up construction at the Western Wall plaza and a committee vote to leave authority over conversion with the office of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.
In a written statement, the chairman of the Bayit Yehudi party said that American Jewry feels as if it has been “slapped in the face,” adding that he has spent the past day working on damage control.
By Monday afternoon Bennett had already released a four-minute video – posted to Twitter on Tuesday morning (Israel time) – explaining “the Kotel Compromise, what was decided… what my position is, and how we move forward.”
Showing the original compromise over the Western Wall plaza, and the planned expansion of the mixed-prayer site, Bennett said the High Court of Justice would ultimately be the body that would decide on the compromise. Sunday was the deadline for the state to respond to petitions before the Court to show cause on its failure to implement an agreement to continue construction on a mixed-sex prayer section at the southern edge of the Western Wall plaza, near Robinson’s Arch, by this week.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation had approved the Conversion Bill, which would revoke government recognition of conversions carried out by anyone other than bodies linked to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel — has been the case for decades prior.
There was a roar of rage from non-Orthodox Jewish individuals and organizational entities abroad and in Israel in response to both decisions. In the United States in particular, where the assimilation rate has long since topped the 50 percent mark, wealthy American Jewish organization leaders were outraged and made sure Israel’s leadership understood the price they would pay if the decision was allowed to stand.
“Over the past 24 hours we have held marathon meetings with the heads of U.S. Jewish communities currently in Israel,” Bennett said, “and the picture is troubling.
“The representatives of American Jewry feel they were slapped in the face by the government of Israel, and that they are apparently not longer welcome here. Of course, this is not true.
“The Jews of the U.S. are welcomed and loved. They are our brothers. But mistakes were made regarding timing and the way things were done,” he said. “Additionally there is an apparent campaign of misinformation” he said, “claiming the [Western Wall] is being closed to Diaspora Jews and the status of conversions is being changed. This is false,” he underlined.
“This is why we will hold a series of meetings over the next day to listen to the leaders of Diaspora communities, to open dialogue and reach an understanding allowing us to end this crisis.
“American Jews are a fundamental pillar of the State of Israel. Israeli and American Jews will remain united,” he emphasized hours later, reading the same statement before the cameras and adding remarks at a presser held at the Education Ministry Tuesday morning.