December 12, 2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Leading national religious rabbi, Yuval Cherlow, has called for Israel to recognize non-Orthodox steams of Judaism.

Cherlow, who recently returned from a visit to the United States, said in a written statement to his yeshiva students that state recognition of non-Orthodox Jewish denominations would prevent their alienation from Israel. The recognition would be a state policy and not a change in Jewish law, he added,

He pointed out that Torah and Zionism are not as important to Diaspora Jews as it once was, and that non-Orthodox Diaspora Jews do not want to identify with Israel “because of the occupation, the racism, the control of another people by force.”

Cherlow is the head of a hesder yeshiva in Petah Tikvah, and a head of the Tzohar rabbinical organization, Tzohar distanced itself from Cherlow’s statement, Haaretz reported.
 

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