A routine briefing by minister Natan Sharansky to the Israeli cabinet about an educational project called "Judaism for everyone" turned into a shouting match, climaxing with a secular minister from the Shinui party allegedly making anti-Jewish remarks, Israeli media reports. Sharansky, minister with responsibility for Diaspora Affairs, told the cabinet that on the upcoming Jewish Yom Kippur, the program would sponsor nearly 200 locations for free and open prayer nationwide, with explanatory lectures before and after the services. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid (Shinui) objected that these were not activities in which he believed the government should be involved, or that secular people should help fund.
He emphasized that while he did not object to Judaism or all things Jewish, he opposed paying for "missionary" activity with public funds. In a heated debate, Sharansky said that he never imagined that there would be opposition to an "open" and "liberal" project whose goal was to enhance Jewish knowledge. Minister Uzi Landau observed that if an objection had been raised to Jewish activities outside of Israel, it would have been dismissed as anti-Semitic.