JERUSALEM - Several Israeli school districts held impromptu tolerance classes on Sunday after the country's education minister, an Orthodox rabbi, angered LGBTQ advocates by implying homosexuality was unnatural.

The furor over the remarks by Education Minister Rafael Peretz - who last year spoke favorably about gay "conversion therapy," a widely discredited method - reached into the Israeli cabinet, one of whose members is openly gay.

Asked by the weekend edition of the top-selling Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper what he would do if one his children had a "different sexual orientation," Peretz said: "Thank God, my children grew up in a natural and healthy way. They are building their homes on the basis of Jewish values. I don't bother my head with 'what if' thinking."

Several Israeli municipalities said they would open the new school week with tolerance classes in response. Read more via Reuters