Tel-Chai Nation

Rabbi Haim Amsalem blames the Haredi bigwigs for leading to assimilation of Jews:

Rabbi Amsalem pulled no punches while sharing his opinion on the subject of the hearing. He is known for criticizing the Chief Rabbinate's conversion policies, which he considers too stringent and which he often compares unfavorably with the opinions of Sephardic rabbis on the subject.

He quoted the Bible's words calling for the Ingathering of the Exiles, but charged that today, the State of Israel behaves in the opposite manner: "I blame the rabbinic and Torah establishments and all the State's institutions because they brutalize those seeking to convert with a heavy, unyielding, and un-halakhic hand, and instead of drawing people close we are dividing the Jewish nation and distancing it from ourselves - and this is a grave sin."

The Rabbi recalled the Jewish world's support for the establishment of the State of Israel as a guide to Diaspora relations: "I suggest a different, attractive approach styled after that of Harav Uziel and all the great Rabbis of Israel who went in his path - to draw close and embrace and find every way possible not to lose a single Jewish soul and not to do what the State of Israel is doing in so many issues: Conversions, nullifying conversions, non-recognition of conversions performed by community rabbis - all these things are exasperating, against the halakha, and infuriating."

Rabbi Amsalem attacked the approach of the haredi Members of Knesset who say there is no connection between Judaism and Reform: "The haredi MK's are misled and they mislead others. Yes, they have the State by the throat and they dictate policy. But I believe a day will come when things will change and for this reason I am returning to politics because this extreme haredi approach must cease and the State must understand who means for her good and who seeks to turn the Jewish people into a nation of maybe one million Jews, and all the rest, as far as they are concerned - the secular, Conservatives, Reform, and actually anyone who doesn't identify with the haredi way...are on the other side of the fence and out of the camp.

On this he's certainly correct. Their MO is poor and basically dictates that all Judaists are their "property". That's why they don't deserve to be in positions like they have now.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, Moonbattery