Far-right activist Baruch Marzel has sent top international model Bar Refaeli a strongly worded letter urging her not to marry long-term non-Jewish boyfriend Leonardo DiCaprio.
Marzel, formerly of the outlawed Kach party, wrote recently on behalf of Lehava, an organization dedicated to stopping intermarriage within Israel. He called on the top model to reconsider her potential decision, insisting, “It is not by chance that you were born Jewish. Your grandmother and her grandmother did not dream that one of their descendants would one day remove the family’s future generations from the Jewish people. Assimilation has forever been one of the enemies of the Jewish people.”
Marzel urged Refaeli to “come to your senses, look forward and back, too – and not only [at] the present. Don’t marry Leonardo DiCaprio. Don’t harm the future generations.”
Speaking to
The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Marzel explained his actions, saying, “There is an increasing problem with intermarriage all over Israel. We’re fighting to prevent this problem, and when [the rate of intermarriage] increases, it legitimizes it.
“Someone like Bar Refaeli, who is famous, should be ashamed to betray her Judaism in this way,” he continued. “Part of the way of fighting this is by sending her a letter.”
Asked whether he believed his methods were appropriate, he stated,
“I’ve got to try. I’m trying any way I can. I tried to call her, but
she wouldn’t answer, so I sent her a letter instead. I’ve tried to
succeed.”
Marzel cited, but refused to name, “many” examples
of high-profile female Israeli celebrities who, after his intervention,
had broken up with their non-Jewish significant others and gone on to
be “good religious girls.”
Refaeli’s mother and manager, Tzipi Levine, could not be reached for comment.