Shocked By Rise of Jewish Extremism in Israel, Maverick Rabbi Denounces Discriminatory Laws

Rabbis from a liberal stream of Judaism issued this month a blanket disavowal of religious rulings that discriminate against non-Jews. The repudiation comes in response to racist rulings by state-funded Israeli clerics and terror attacks by their followers. In early May, the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the theological adjudication body of Conservative Jews, voted unanimously to accept the 28-page anti-racist “tshuvah”, or religious responsum, of American-IsraeliRabbi Reuven Hammer.

At his home in Jerusalem, Hammer told AlterNet that he felt compelled to write the responsum because in recent years, many leading Israeli rabbis - including chief rabbis whose salaries are paid by Israeli taxpayers - have issued religious edicts calling upon their constituents to actively discriminate against non-Jews. Hammer says that he was particularly bothered by hundreds of local chief rabbisforbidding Jews from renting flats to non-Jews and by Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosefforbidding non-Jews from living in Israel at all....
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/shocked-rise-jewish-extremism-israel-maverick-rabbi-denounces-discriminatory-laws