The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing nearly 200 North American halakha-observant rabbis, today called upon the Reform and Conservative movements to “stop dividing the Jewish People” with what it termed a “disinformation campaign” regarding Israel’s Western Wall.

The American liberal groups had launched a billboard and poster campaign across Israel Thursday featuring the slogan “Free the Western Wall — Enough of Charedi Control!” However, haredi-religious Jews, often called “ultra-Orthodox,” are only a minority of Israel’s traditional Jews and are far from the only sector in Israel that wish to retain the status quo at the Wall.

According to the CJV, the American-funded posters, in addition to ignoring Religious Zionist Israelis, also disenfranchise all traditional Israeli Jews, including refugees from countries like Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco, as well as Jews from ancient communities in Italy, Greece, India and elsewhere. None of these are considered “haredi” or “ultra-Orthodox,” yet all strictly observe the custom of dividing men and women during prayer.

“This is a disinformation campaign intended to calumny other Jews,” said Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Director of the CJV. “It doesn’t merely demonize the haredim, it insults all Jews who do not follow Reform’s lead in the abandonment of classical Jewish practice.”

Read the full article at Israel National News.