total-- : --time0:0012:44 PM • July 09 2026 IDTThe far-right religious Netanyahu government is doing its best to "push away" liberal non-Orthodox American Jews from Israel, said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, leader of the U.S. Reform movement, on the Haaretz Podcast."We're not going away. We're actually leaning in," he said. "You can't trade in non‑Orthodox Jews for evangelical Christians. We're stuck, you're stuck with us, we're stuck with you – we're the Jewish people."During the era of negotiations over the 2016 historic compromise between non-Orthodox movements and the Israeli government over an egalitarian plaza at the Western Wall for mixed-gender prayer, Jacobs said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and the premier's close advisers – were in regular contact.Today, he said, "it has been years" since there has been a phone call – let alone a meeting – between the leader of the largest American Jewish membership organization and the Israeli leader – and, nearly a decade after the collapse of the compromise effort, the government is moving legislation through the Knesset that would not only forbid but criminalize egalitarian prayer, as well as women reading Torah and wearing traditionally masculine ritual garments at the Western Wall."It's not just that you're going to get hassled: You could literally spend seven years in jail," said Jacobs, noting that additional proposed laws regarding the Law of Return and conversion, together with the Western Wall bill, "reflects a demonization – not just a difference, but a demonization – of non-Orthodox Jewry."On the podcast, Jacobs confronted the deep political challenges facing liberal and progressive American Jews regarding the "shockwaves" in the U.S.-Israel relationship, the spike in antisemitism since October 7 and Israel's reaction to it."There's this notion I hear it all the time, particularly from officials of the Israeli government, which is: 'They all hate us … Everybody hates Israel. Everybody hates the Jews. So it doesn't matter what we do here, [with] settler violence in the West Bank – if we eradicate that, they'd still hate us. And issues around pluralism and democracy don't matter, because they'll always hate us.'"I just would like to bring the view that says actually, it does matter."In the NewsReform Movement Head Rick Jacobs on the Growing 'Isolation' of U.S. JewsNetanyahu Imitates Trump's AI Video, Peddles 'Bibi Derangement Syndrome'This Question Will Determine the Fate of Trump's Israel-Lebanon DealU.S. and Iran Exchange Fire Overnight as Trump Warns, 'It Will Get Much Worse'Trump Says Iran Cease-fire Is Over - but Isn't Galloping Toward All-out WarRemembering and rebuilding two years laterICYMIIsrael Has Long Ignored Warnings of a 'Diplomatic Tsunami.' Now It Has ArrivedDumber Than a 10-year-old: Are Israeli Students Really That Stupid?An Israeli Principal Desegregated a Tel Aviv School. Here's What HappenedThe 'Special Relationship' Is Gone, and Israel Isn't Ready for What's ComingAs Israel Lacks Hundreds of Patrol Officers, West Bank Staff DoublesRep. Dan Goldman Says Support for Israel Cost Him New York Democratic Primary