Reform and Conservative Jews Press Suit To Force Israel To Honor Western Wall Prayer Deal
Image by Getty Images
The Reform and Conservative movements in Israel and the Women of the Wall have petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to order the government to follow through on the plan to create the egalitarian prayer area next to the Western Wall.
Should the plan not be implemented, the lawsuit filed Thursday said the current Western Wall plaza should be divided into a third section to serve egalitarian worshippers.
The petition also called on the court to order the Western Wall Heritage Foundation to include non-Orthodox and female members, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz, which saw a copy of the filing.
Under the agreement announced in January and approved by the Cabinet in a 15-5 vote, the egalitarian section at the wall near Robinson’s Arch would be expanded and placed under the authority of a pluralist committee. The plan called for solidifying haredi Orthodox control over the site’s traditional Orthodox section.
The agreement was negotiated among Women of the Wall, the site’s haredi Orthodox leadership, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Israeli government, and the Reform and Conservative movements. All parties praised the decision as path breaking at the time.
Later, however, the religious partners backed away from the deal and in June, a group of Orthodox Jewish organizations filed a petition with the Supreme Court to prevent the establishment of the egalitarian section.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
