Chief Sephardic rabbi slams haredi parties

YNET
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar criticized the haredi parties in the Knesset Wednesday and claimed that they were displaying "weakness on ideological matters" while "focusing too much on budgets".

In a holiday interview with the ultra-Orthodox journal 'Family', Amar expressed discontent for the way Shas and United Torah Judaism handled a Knesset dispute over laws on conversion and civil marriage....

.......The rabbi explained his involvement in the conversion and marriage bills. "The fact that we have so-and-so non-Jews who are not allowed to marry puts pressure on us to ease conversions, and not only ease, but also allow reform authorities to convert," he said. 

"So I said we could amend two things: We can amend the conversion laws and we can give goyim the right to marry between themselves and then the pressure will drop. Really, when you check, you realize that most of them marry each other." 

Amar also criticized haredim who believe it is better to risk interfaith marriage and keep a database of genealogy rather than ease conversion. 

"It's a disaster," he claimed. "We are helping those who in any case would never consider marrying anyone who is not Jewish but all the rest are being tossed over the fence – they could find themselves outside of the people of Israel."   Full story