Israel’s Knesset to Hold Pluralist Menorah Lighting
Kotel security tried to keep Women of the Wall and their menorah’s away from the Western Wall. Image by Screen Shot
Israel’s Knesset will hold a Hanukkah candle lighting including women and representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements.
The lighting, to take place Tuesday, was set up by Knesset member Michal Rozin of the left-wing Meretz party as a response to a state candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall on Sunday that did not include women. Women of the Wall, which organizes monthly women’s prayer services at the Western Wall, held its own candle lighting at the site on Sunday, also in protest of the state ceremony.
Tuesday’s lighting will include Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv and Conservative Rabbi Yizhar Hess — leaders of their respective denominations in Israel — as well as Women of the Wall chairwoman Anat Hoffman; Hanna Kehat, founder of Kolech Religious Women’s Forum, and Mickey Gitzin, founder of the religious pluralism nonprofit Be Free Israel.
Women of the Wall being denied entrance to the Kotel with a Hanukkah Menorah.
Posted by Women of the Wall Nashot HaKotel on Sunday, December 6, 2015
Tuesday’s lighting will include Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv and Conservative Rabbi Yizhar Hess — leaders of their respective denominations in Israel — as well as Women of the Wall chairwoman Anat Hoffman; Hanna Kehat, founder of Kolech Religious Women’s Forum, and Mickey Gitzin, founder of the religious pluralism nonprofit Be Free Israel.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
