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Netanyahu Appoints Western Wall Deal Negotiator to New Post

Women of the Wall gathered at the Kotel in May. Image by Getty Images

By JTA May 24, 2016

TEL AVIV — David Sharan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s U.S.-born chief of staff, who is heading negotiations on an egalitarian Western Wall plaza, will be the Israeli Cabinet’s next secretary.

In April, Netanyahu tapped Sharan to run reopened discussion on an agreement to expand the non-Orthodox prayer platform at the Western Wall, allowing progressive Jews and feminist prayer group Women of the Wall to hold services there. His predecessor Avichai Mandelblit had led the negotiations that led to the agreement, which was approved by the Cabinet on January 31.

Netanyahu reopened the deal for talks following protests by his Haredi Orthodox coalition partners, who object to non-Orthodox prayer at the site. Sharan said he would propose changes based on objections to the plan, ahead of a June 1 deadline to finalize it.

Israeli and American Reform and Conservative leaders said they will not accept any significant modifications to the plan, which includes an egalitarian platform accessible through a shared entrance with the gender-segregated areas.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Reform movement in North America; Rabbi Steven Wernick, the chief executive officer of the Conservative Movement and Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement are planning an emergency trip to try to discuss the deal with Netanyahu before the June 1 deadline, according to Haaretz.

Another group, Original Women of the Wall, whose members oppose any plan that would allow women to lead services only in the egalitarian section of the Kotel, have also demanded a meeting with Sharan and said the opinions of Conservative and Reform leaders did not represent its views.

The appointment was announced Monday, according to Israeli media reports. Sharan will manage the work of the 20-member Cabinet, which includes ministers from Israel’s soon-to-be six coalition parties and which votes on government policy. Sharan will also coordinate the work of the smaller security Cabinet, which deals with matters of war and peace.

Mandelblit’s term ended in January. Sharan, who graduated from high school in Los Angeles, according to the Times of Israel, was previously chief of staff to Yuval Steinitz, a Likud minister and confidant of Netanyahu.

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