On Thursday afternoon, around 500 men and women gathered in the Southern Plaza of the Western Wall — a stone piazza commonly used for swearing in soldiers or taking an iconic tourist selfie near Judaism’s holiest site — to hold a defiant afternoon prayer service in response to what they feel was a terrible display…
The temporary takeover by Orthodox worshippers of the area at the Western Wall designated for non-Orthodox services combined with doubts about the Israeli government promise to sanction egalitarian prayer there has spurred non-Orthodox leaders to abandon the plan for a separate space and revert to their original demand: for their own section at the existing…
In what is believed to be a first, Orthodox Jews temporarily took over the space at the Western Wall that has been designated for non-Orthodox prayer services. A — a physical divider separating men and women — was set up at the southern section of the Western Wall on Tuesday for a service led by Jerusalem Chief…
Israel’s former Sephardic chief rabbi said that a landmark compromise establishing a mixed-gender prayer space at the Western Wall will “weaken Jerusalem.” Speaking on Sunday, Shlomo Amar, who is currently the Sephardic chief rabbi of Jerusalem, also referred to the liberal Jewish proponents of expanding non-Orthodox worship space at Judaism’s holiest site as “wicked,” the…
Now that the long-awaited plan to create a proper egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall has been put on hold, again, here are five actions that American Jewish leaders can take — and one course of action that they should not, under any circumstances, follow. Option 1: Lay low. This is the Israeli option….
The Israeli government will order a permanent bimah, the elevated platform on which a prayer leader stands, to be built in the southern section of the Western Wall holy site as a signal to American and Israeli non-Orthodox movements that it is serious about implementing its plan for an egalitarian prayer space there. The gesture…
The deadline for resolving the crisis over the new egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall in Jerusalem has been extended indefinitely, after an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to draft a solution acceptable to the opposing sides within the 60 days he was allotted. Meanwhile, leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements…
Since Haredi threats to break with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau’s goernment torpedoed a plan for an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall about two months ago, the Israeli government has been trying to craft a compromise deal that will satisfy both sides before a June 1 deadline. But so far government representatives have…
