The Jerusalem Post

Porush likens Reform Jews to pigs

Haredi MKs denounce Labor MK Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi, after his appointmen­t to chair Knesset committee

- • By JEREMY SHARON

United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush likened Reform Jews and Labor MK Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi, to pigs in a Knesset speech on Monday.

He made his comments in reaction to the appointmen­t of Kariv as chairman of the Knesset Constituti­on, Law and Justice Committee.

UTJ chairman Moshe Gafni said the party’s MKs would not sit on the committee.

Speaking from the podium in the

Knesset plenum, Porush denounced Reform Judaism, calling it “a new religion” that tried to pretend it was valid.

“Esau was compared to a pig who, when he sat down and spread his hooves, said, ‘Look, I am pure,’” he said. “What is the problem with the Reform [movement]? They take parts of the Torah, they have a new religion, they spread their hooves and say, ‘We are pure,’ like the pig that spreads its hooves.”

The new government is a “government of hate,” Porush said, adding that it had decided to appoint Kariv, “that man, the Reform [Jew] in the Knesset, who all the time spreads his hooves and says, ‘I am pure.’”

“He will head the committee, and with his power, he will try and undermine the laws of the Torah, God forbid,” he said.

UTJ MK Uri Maklev said Kariv represente­d the Reform movement, “which seeks to erode the Jewish people with malicious intent.”

“Until now, there were serious discussion­s in this committee,” he said. “But this [appointmen­t of Kariv as chairman] is designed to turn it into a scene of violent confrontat­ion.”

“Look at what is happening at the Western Wall,” Maklev said. “The Western Wall is almost the only place where the unity of the Jewish people is expressed, and what are they doing there today? They turned it into a scene of violent confrontat­ion.”

Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Reform Action Center, denounced Porush’s comments, saying

he had crossed a redline, and it could not be tolerated.

“The rabbinical establishm­ent is a

bullying and dangerous monopoly, and MK Porush himself proves it,” she said.

 ?? (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) ?? MK MEIR PORUSH attends a Knesset Arrangemen­ts Committee meeting on Monday.
(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) MK MEIR PORUSH attends a Knesset Arrangemen­ts Committee meeting on Monday.

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