Rabbi Aryeh Deri of Shas
During a period of formal questions addressed to the Interior Minister during a Knesset plenum, Rabbi Arye Deri replied to those questions applying to his office.
In an answer to MK Eliezer Stern (Yesh Atid) who asked why he shuns the Reform movement and does not negotiate with them, he replied, "The Reform members are actually our own brothers but they cause untold damage and destruction to Judaism."
Rabbi Deri went on to tell, "I spent a Shabbos in Carmiel with hosts who were traditional Jews. They showed me a building which was constructed according to the decision of the High Court as a Reform temple. I was told that on Yom Kippur they brought a trampoline for the children as well as stands of drinks and treats.
"They showed me another Reform temple in the city which, combined with the first, had an attendance of no more than ten people. In one of them, a guitar is played accompanying the service and in the second, an organ.
"So I ask you: Is this the Judaism which I am supposed to befriend? If this is Judaism, leave me out. This is not a synagogue but something else altogether. The form of Judaism which I recognize follows the Shulchan Oruch which preserves the Halacha."
"What do the Reform people want with the Kosel?" Rabbi Deri went on to explain. "I pray that the Beis Hamikdash be rebuilt, that the service of korbonos be reinstated and that the Sanhedrin become operative once more, but they do not believe in this. Why, then, do they come to the Kosel? What do they have from it?
"Their only agenda is provocation and causing dissension within our people. They deliberately try to destroy the original path of Judaism in every Jewish area."
