The End of Italian-Style Judaism as Young Rabbis Are Bowing to Israeli Orthodoxy

“Young rabbis educated abroad, with a stricter and less worldly approach, are replacing the old guard epitomised by Rome’s powerful Rabbi Toaff, who passed away last week,” Anna Momigliano of Haaretz reports.

It’s sad to see how the religious establishment in Israel is behaving like its equivalent in Islamic states. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate is in urgent need of reform. I first move should be to add a Reform and Masorti rabbi to the two Ashkenazi and Sephardi rabbis.

Image: Rabbi Toaff with former Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, photographed in 2007 by Mario De Siati (Wikimedia Commons).