STATE SANCTIONED ANTI-SEMITISM:

The front-runner in Israel's presidential election has equated Reform Judaism with "idol worship" and refused to refer to Reform rabbis by their title.

Former Knesset speaker Reuven "Ruby" Rivlin, considered a Likud party elder statesman, is one of six candidates running to succeed Shimon Peres in the largely ceremonial post chosen by the Knesset every seven years. Rivlin is backed in the June 10 vote by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and much of the center-right governing coalition. [...]

His most scathing remarks about Reform Judaism came in 1989 after visiting Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in New Jersey.

"I was completely stunned," Rivlin said in an interview published in Yediot Acharonot. "This is idol worship and not Judaism. Until now I thought Reform was a stream of Judaism, but after visiting two of their synagogues I am convinced that this is a completely new religion without any connection to Judaism."

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