Naftali Bennett
Naftali BennettYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett came in for more criticism on Wednesday, over his recent decision to make a very publicized visit to the Solomon Shechter Conservative movement school in New York.

The popular haredi lecturer Rabbi Mordechai Neugroschel, co-founder of "Judaism from a Different Angle," spoke to Kol Chai radio on Wednesday and added his condemnation of the move.

Bennett previously was criticized by Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi David Lau, who warned the visit acts to grant recognition to the movement that increases the dangers of assimilation. The Education Minister responded by saying there is an "emergency situation" of assimilation for Jews in the diaspora, and that Israeli leaders need to bring all Jews closer regardless of affiliation.

Conservative Judaism does not adhere to halakha (Jewish law) and to a large degree rejects the divine nature of the Torah, leaving open individual reinterpretation.

Rabbi Neugroschel slammed Bennett's defense of his visit, saying, "his definition is pompous, false, arrogant and prideful."

"As Diaspora Affairs Minister he isn't responsible for even one Jew of world Jewry, he is responsible for the relations of the state of Israel with world Jewry," said the incensed rabbi, calling Bennett, "impudent and boastful."

"In fact, precisely because he sees himself as responsible for the relations of the state of Israel with world Jewry, he needs to come and say this: 'these movements destroy world Jewry; these movements spread teachings of assimilation; their false rabbis hold marriage ceremonies for non-Jews and Jews, some of them together with priests; they convert (non-Jews) by telepathy and make a farce of Judaism, they make a joke out of anything Jewish that moves.'"

Rabbi Neugroschel said that "if Bennett views himself as responsible for them, he needs to say, 'Mr. Chief Rabbi (Lau), let's join hands and say these are false movements, destructive movements, who are 'your destroyers and those who made waste of you,' and we must fulfill the line 'shall go forth from you,' so that they leave us,'" in a reference to Isaiah 49:17.

"This is what should be said by a minister who views himself as the inheritor of a party that occasionally before elections dares to spread pictures of rabbis who call to vote for it."

"Anyone whose intelligence is greater than that of the average mouse understands what I'm saying," concluded the rabbi.

For his part, Bennett has defended the move as simply an effort to reach out to American Jews - the vast majority of whom are non-Orthodox - without legitimizing or otherwise passing comment on their views, religious or otherwise.