Jerusalem, Israel - World leaders of Reform Judaism launched a new push Monday for greater support from Israelis despite what they called continuing discrimination at the hands of the Orthodox religious establishment in Israel.
Reform Judaism, a liberal, egalitarian movement, is the largest branch of American Judaism. But the movement has never caught on in large numbers in Israel, where the majority of religious Jews are Orthodox, and only a small minority Conservative or Reform.
In Israel, the Orthodox rabbinate has strenuously resisted inroads by the other streams, refusing to recognize their rulings or conversions as religiously valid.
Rabbi Uri Regev, head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, the international umbrella group of the Reform movement, said its membership in Israel numbers in the thousands out of a population of 7 million.
The movement is planning a $100 million project to increase the number of Israelis involved in Reform Judaism.