Hate Speech from the Knesset
Minister May Golan’s recent attack on MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv and all Reform Jews in an antisemitic screed accusing him/us of “marrying dogs in your delusional synagogues,” was not merely a political insult aimed at one member of Knesset or one Movement. It was an attack on the religious identity and legitimacy of millions of Jews in Israel and around the world who find meaning, connection, and covenant through liberal Judaism, and through the use of “dogs,” an attempt to dehumanize us.
That these remarks came on the eve of Shavuot makes them all the more painful — and all the more revealing.
Shavuot is the festival of revelation, the moment when the Jewish people stood together at Sinai to receive Torah. According to the rabbinic imagination, every Jewish soul — past, present, and future — was present at that mountain. Torah was not given only to one ideology, one denomination, or one political camp. It was given to an entire people, diverse and disputatious from the very beginning.
The covenant at Sinai did not erase differences – rather, it sanctified collective responsibility despite differences.
As Anna Kislanski, CEO of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, rightly stated, these comments represent “ignorance, incitement, and contempt” toward the millions of Jews who belong to the Reform Movement in Israel and around the world. The attempt to mock Reform synagogues and delegitimize Reform Jews is not simply an internal Israeli political dispute. It reverberates across Jewish communities worldwide, alienating Jews who seek connection with Israel but are too often told that their Judaism is somehow lesser, inauthentic, or unwelcome.
That alienation comes at an enormous cost.
For decades, Israeli leaders have spoken about the importance of Jewish unity and the centrality of Diaspora Jewry to the Zionist project. Yet again and again, members of Israel’s government choose language that humiliates and excludes the very Jews whose support, solidarity, philanthropy, advocacy, and love for Israel remain indispensable.
There is a profound irony in invoking Judaism while violating one of Judaism’s most foundational ethical teachings. As Kislanski reminded us, “derech eretz kadmah LaTorah דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה” — that basic human decency precedes Torah. Before revelation comes respect. Before religious authority comes human dignity.
And Shavuot itself reinforces that truth. The Book of Ruth, read on the holiday, tells the story not of coercion or exclusion, but of radical belonging. Ruth enters the covenantal story of the Jewish people not through purity tests or political loyalty, but through love, commitment, and shared destiny: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” The message of Shavuot is that Judaism grows stronger when people are brought closer, not pushed away.
MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv was therefore correct to point out that these attacks are bigger than any individual politician.
“May Golan didn’t just attack me with antisemitic remarks. She attacked the millions of Reform Jews in Israel and around the world. Soon, we’ll send this antisemitic, racist, and corrupt government packing.”
When Reform Jews are caricatured or demeaned by ministers of the Israeli government, the message heard by many Jews around the world is painfully clear: your Judaism does not count here.
And yet, despite these repeated insults, Reform Jews continue to show up for Israel. We continue to advocate for Israel in hostile spaces, invest in Israeli society, build bridges across communities, and fight for a vision of the Jewish state that is democratic, pluralistic, and morally serious.
This is precisely why the rhetoric of exclusion is so shortsighted. Israel does not become stronger by narrowing the definition of Jewish legitimacy. It becomes weaker. A Jewish state that dismisses vast portions of the Jewish world undermines the very idea of Jewish peoplehood it claims to defend.
The challenge before Israel and the Jewish world is not whether disagreements will exist. They always have. The question is whether we can sustain a covenantal relationship even amid profound disagreement — whether we can recognize that Jewish unity is not sameness, and that pluralism is not a threat to Judaism but one of the conditions for its flourishing in the modern age.
Millions of Jews do not need permission from politicians to live Jewish lives of meaning, prayer, learning, and commitment. Reform Judaism is not a caricature to be mocked from a podium. It is a living, vibrant expression of Jewish civilization rooted in Torah, moral responsibility, equality, and the enduring project of Jewish renewal.
On Shavuot, we remember that the revelation took place at the foot of a mountain spacious enough to hold an entire people. The task of Jewish leadership today is not to decide which Jews belong at Sinai. It is to ensure that every Jew knows they were already there.
In honor of Minister May Golan help support the Israeli Reform Movement and join our joint emergency campaign!
Hag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!