Following suit, leaders of the Reform Movement in Israel and the US announced Monday that they too were cancelling a meeting with the prime minister that was scheduled to take place on Thursday.
The movement's President, Rabbi Rick Jacobs described the Cabinet's decision as cause for a major crisis between the Israeli government and Diaspora Jewry. He added that the leaders feel like they have nothing to discuss with Netanyahu at the moment. Later on Monday, the Jewish Agency for Israel's Board of Governors formulated a resolution calling on the government to halt what it called the "dangerous and damaging steps."Referring to the proposed conversion bill which would cement the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly on conversion, the resolution stated that it has the "devastating potential to permanently exclude hundreds of thousands of Israelis from being a part of the Jewish people." Additionally, deploring the freezing of the agreement reached for an egalitarian prayer section at the Kotel, the resolution stated that these two decision "have a deep potential to divide the Jewish people and to undermine the Zionist vision and dream of Herzl, Ben-Gurion, and Jabotinsky to establish Israel as a national home for the entire Jewish people."Thus, the נoard in its resolution calls on each צember of the Knesset and all elected public officials "to take all necessary action to ensure that these dangerous and damaging steps are halted.""We will continue to build a broad coalition of Israelis, together with partners from around the world, who care passionately about keeping our people united and who are committed to the unity of the Jewish people; and We call upon the Government of Israel to understand the gravity of its steps and reverse its course of action accordingly," it concludes.