Ambassador to US slams minister’s ‘disgusting’ remark that Reform rabbi marries dogs

Yechiel Leiter’s condemnation of May Golan’s attack on MK Gilad Kariv comes as over 500 Jewish leaders demand envoy himself apologize for calling J Street a ‘cancer’ in Jewish community

For the second day in a row, Israel’s Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter  on Thursday issued a condemnation of a cabinet member in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — this time calling out Social Equality Minister May Golan for slandering Reform Jews, saying that their rabbis “marry dogs.”

While Leiter vowed to apologize on behalf of Israel to the US Reform community, he was himself under fire and being urged to take back remarks calling the left-wing Israel lobby group J Street, a “cancer.”

Golan’s attack on Reform Judaism came as Reform rabbi and Democrats MK Gilad Kariv assailed her in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday following reports that the minister had secured Rafi Kedoshim — an ex-convict and power player in the ruling Likud party — a NIS 22,000 ($7,550) government salary ahead of the coming Likud primaries.

“What Rafi Kedishim has been doing in recent years, you won’t do in another 200 incarnations — while you walk with the Women of the Wall or marry dogs in delusional synagogues,” Golan said in remarks at the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.

Leiter posted on X on Thursday in response, saying, “I condemn in the strongest terms Minister May Golan’s verbal attack on MK Gilad Kariv and on Reform Judaism in general.”

“As an Orthodox Jew and as Israel’s representative to the United States, I find her words disgusting and reprehensible, worthy of excoriation and rebuke,” Leiter says.

“Theological, political and ideological differences are fine, even necessary for a healthy people. But there is a line that cannot be crossed — it is a line that divides debate from hate and separates altruism from populism. Too many are crossing the line,” he continues.

“May Golan’s statement is one of them. I will visit with leaders of the Reform movement soon, in person, to apologize on Israel’s behalf,” Leiter says.

Kariv later accused Golan on social media of having “spread disgusting antisemitic slander against millions of Reform Jews.”

“This is the most anti-Zionist and antisemitic government in the history of Israel,” he said. “But this is their swan song — in their place will come a government that respects every Jew… and every human.”

Right-wing and ultra-Orthodox politicians have repeatedly disparaged the Reform movement publicly, including by demeaning Kariv.

Founded in 19th-century Germany as a liberal approach to Judaism, the Reform movement has only a marginal presence in Israel despite being the largest Jewish denomination in North America.

In Israel, the movement is legally and politically sidelined by the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over marriage, conversion and religious funding. Many secular Israelis also distrust the movement, seeing it as an imported version of Judaism.

Leiter’s comments marked the second time in a matter of days that he publicly called out a minister in the government, a rare step for an ambassador.

On Wednesday, Leiter joined the chorus of condemnations against National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who posted a video of himself taunting bound activists from a Gaza flotilla detained by Israel.

Jewish leader demand Leiter apologize for calling liberal pro-Israel lobby a ‘cancer’

But while Leiter was calling out politicians back home, he himself was under fire in the US.

Over 500 rabbis, cantors and Jewish communal leaders signed onto a letter calling on him to rescind and apologize for his own Monday remarks describing dovish Mideast lobby J Street as a “cancer within the Jewish community.”

The letter, which J Street shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Thursday, accused the former settler activist, who was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year, of using language that “dehumanizes fellow Jews.”

While Judaism embraces vigorous debate, disagreements must be conducted with “humanity, humility and respect for the dignity of every Jew,” the signatories wrote.

“At this painful and polarized moment in Jewish life, leaders on both sides of the ocean bear a heightened responsibility to lower the flames rather than fan them further,” the letter read. “We therefore call on you to retract your remarks and issue a public apology to the many American Jews, rabbis, cantors and communal leaders who have been hurt by them.”

Among the signatories were New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, former US ambassadors to Israel Daniel Kurtzer and Tom Nides, National Council of Jewish Women CEO Jody Rabhan, Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs and Rabbi David Saperstein, the director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

J Street is the leading liberal pro-Israel lobby and has increasingly staked out positions that have departed from other mainstream pro-Israel groups. Last month, the group announced its opposition to continued US military aid to Israel, which Leiter decried in his remarks.

Speaking to JTA, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said that though the lobby had long been invited to meet with past Israeli ambassadors, it has been “blacklisted by the Embassy, and there’s been no engagement whatsoever,” since Leiter arrived.

Leiter’s remarks followed a long history of criticism of the lobby from pro-Israel officials. Ben-Ami said that while the latest attack was “not new,” he felt spurred to craft a communal rebuke because Leiter’s rhetoric was “breaking” not just the US-Israel relationship, but the relationship between the “American Jewish community and the Israeli Jewish community.”

“Within 24 hours, we had hundreds and hundreds of people, and I think it just shows what a raw nerve Ambassador Leiter has touched here, and just what a big mistake it is for the Israeli government to write off the majority of Jewish Americans who are deeply critical of the government but supportive of the state and the people,” Ben-Ami said of the number of signatories.

Ben-Ami told JTA that his initial reaction to Leiter’s comments was “simply dismay on behalf of Israel and on behalf of the Jewish community.”

“It’s a shame, because Israel, right now, needs all the friends it can get, and it really needs diplomats who seek to open doors and not slam them in people’s faces,” Ben-Ami said.

The Israeli Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from JTA.

Zev Stub contributed to this report.