Shlomo Amar, Israel's joint Chief Rabbi, is on the warpath. He is mobilising rabbis in what he has called a "battle for the soul of the Jewish people", warning of a threat posed by the "uprooters and destroyers of Judaism" and "haters of the Lord".

His language might recall the prophets of old fulminating against the idolatrous priests of Baal. But Rabbi Amar's target is other rabbis, or rather rabbis whom he does not regard as rabbis. This summer, after a long legal struggle, Israel's Government agreed to pay the salaries of a number of non-Orthodox clergy, just as it has long done for thousands of Orthodox rabbis.

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