Israel’s current political direction poses an “existential threat” to Judaism, with the country at risk of becoming “incompatible with Jewish values,” two of the UK’s Progressive rabbinical leaders told The Guardian in an interview published Tuesday.

Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy, co-leads of the country’s nascent Progressive Judaism movement, said that criticism of Israel’s government is “a Jewish obligation” rather than an act of disloyalty.

“We’ve often talked about the direction of Israel being an existential threat not to Jews per se, but to Judaism,” Baginsky said in the interview, timed to promote the movement’s new book, which was published Monday. “What happens when the direction of the government within Israel takes Israel down a line that makes it incompatible with our Jewish values? That’s a huge worry.”

The Progressive Judaism movement was formed last year in a merger of the Liberal Judaism and Reform Judaism movements. It claims to represent about 30% of the country’s Jews who are affiliated with synagogues.

Speaking to The Times of Israel after the Guardian article’s publication, Baginsky elaborated on why the actions of the Israeli government, including military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre, are posing a religious crisis.

“For many of us in Progressive Judaism, our relationship with Israel shapes a large part of our Jewish identity,” she said. “Most of us in Jewish leadership roles in the UK have spent extensive time in Israel, and our relationship with Israel winds itself through our identity, as well as our liturgy, our theology, and our reading of the Torah.”

“When we........

© The Times of Israel