The Jewish world was roiled on Thursday when the Haifa Police abruptly woke up prominent Conservative (Masorti) leader Rabbi Dov Hayun at 5:30 a.m. at his home, detained him, and took him in for questioning at the local station for the crime of officiating weddings outside the jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbinate.

Numerous political and rabbinic leaders weighed in on the controversy, with incoming Jewish Agency chairman MK Isaac Herzog condemning the detainment, saying such actions divide the Jewish people, and hard-line Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich backing the police investigation and the Chief Rabbinate’s control over marriage and divorce.