Sa’ar Shaked doesn’t speak in name of this Progressive Jew

Madeleine Hicklin, Johannesburg

I am a proud Zionist and proud Progressive Jew living in Johannesburg. Watching the rabbi of Beit Emanuel Progressive Synagogue (Rabbi Sa’ar Shaked) stand on a political platform and deliver what should have been a prayer, at the recent ANC policy conference, made my blood boil.

He was asked to deliver a prayer, not offer a treatise on the status of religious freedom – or lack of it – in Israel. I want to categorically state that Sa’ar Shaked does not speak in my name.

I distance myself from any Jew – Israeli or otherwise – who questions the legitimacy of the State of Israel, the status of Progressive Jews in Israel, or the withdrawal of the Israeli government from the Kotel agreement.