The Conservative Movement in Israel has announced that it plans to sue former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu after Rabbi Eliyahu said that Reform and Conservative synagogues have “the fragrance of hell.” Rabbi Eliyahu ruled that Jews should not enter the synagogues, in which services are not conducted according to halacha (Jewish law). His remarks were made as part of a weekly sermon that was later quoted in the “Kol Tzofaich” Shabbat pamphlet.
Conservative Movement spokesmen said they would sue Rabbi Eliyahu for slander, and accused him of spreading hatred. They called on the rabbi to retract his statement and “apologize to the millions of Jews whose dignity he hurt.”