The unprecedented assault by Yair Ettinger on the Reform Movement in Israel as having initiated a failed move that in the end only strengthened the Chief Rabbinate, and his attempt to hint that the movement is itself a kind of satiated establishment, is nothing but needless mudslinging against a movement that has championed equality, freedom of religion and pluralism in Israel.

Ettinger got mixed up: Instead of fighting the corrupt and discriminatory rabbinical institution, he aimed his critical barbs at the group that is trying to restrict the monopoly of the Chief Rabbinate in matters of kashrut in Israel, for consumers and business owners alike. […]

Fear of the rabbinic establishment must not keep us from acting on the ground or lead us to refrain from filing High Court petitions. The two ways are needed to lead to change in relations between religion and state in Israel.