Progressive Jews 'deny more than Holocaust deniers', says Jerusalem Chief Rabbi

Shlomo Amar, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, is facing widespread condemnation after suggesting that Reform Jews “deny more than Holocaust deniers”. 

The former chief rabbi of Israel hit out at progressive Jews after the Israeli High Court announced that it was suspending a plan to create a mixed prayer section at the Western Wall.

In comments reported by the Kikar HaShabbat Charedi news website, Rabbi Amar said: “Today there was a hearing on the Kotel on the petition of the cursed evil people who do every iniquity in the world against the Torah – they even marry Jews and non-Jews.

“They don’t have Yom Kippur or Shabbat, but they want to pray [at the Western Wall]. But no one should think that they want to pray. They want to desecrate the holy. They are trying to deceive and say that extremist charedim invented [prayer arrangements at the Western Wall]. 

“It’s like Holocaust deniers, it’s the same thing. They shout, ‘Why are there Holocaust deniers in Iran?’ They deny more than Holocaust deniers. In all of the Mishna and Gemara [of the Talmud], there was a women’s section and a section for men in the Temple. Did we invent this?”