This is the Forward’s coverage of the Western Wall, also called the Kotel, a Jewish holy site in Jerusalem adjacent to the Temple Mount.
Western Wall
The Latest
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Opinion To Fight The Kotel Decision, U.S. Jews Have To Understand Israeli Politics
One day in May 1935, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin welcomed French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval to Moscow to discuss the rising Nazi threat and France’s defensive plans. How many troops mobilized? Armored divisions? Artillery? At one point, historians say, Laval asked Stalin to ease his harsh treatment of Russian Catholics in order to ensure the…
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Community I Don’t Agree With Israel’s Western Wall Agreement — But I Will Defend Israel All The Same.
At my age, 89, I remember only too well a world sans Israel. Each of us uses her or his experience and wisdom to exercise judgements concerning Israel and the Jewish People. My capacity to do so is constrained by the experiences of my pre-1948 life. One example to illustrate. In 1944, at my age…
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Fast Forward Netanyahu Insists Western Wall Prayer Plan Isn’t Dead
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the leaders of U.S. Jewish federations on Monday that any other premier would have given in to pressure from ultra-Orthodox political parties and completely canceled the plan for an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall, two senior Israeli officials involved in the meeting told Haaretz. The meeting was called…
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Opinion Most Jews React To Netanyahu’s Western Wall Decision With Outrage
Seventeen months after a historic deal was reached that would allow egalitarian and non-Orthodox prayer spaces at the Western Wall, Israel’s governing cabinet suspended the agreement, bowing to pressure from Haredi parties in the government who wish to maintain the status quo. Reaction throughout the Jewish world has been swift and loud. Diaspora Jews, particularly…
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Fast Forward Jewish Agency Vows No ‘Business As Usual’ With Israel After Western Wall Move
The Jewish Agency’s board of governors canceled a scheduled dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israeli government decided to freeze a plan to create an egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall. Also Monday, the heads of the Reform movement in the United States and Israel said they would cancel a meeting with…
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Fast Forward Israeli Government: Western Wall Is Not For Egalitarian Prayer
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet has rescinded a government decision to create an official egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall. The decision announced on Sunday comes after the haredi Orthdox United Torah Judaism party and the Sephardi Orthodox Shas party, both members of the current government, put pressure on Netanyahu…
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Opinion How Bibi Just Gave Liberal Jews The Finger — And What We Can Do About It
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just gave the finger to a huge chunk of American Jews and, by doing so, dangerously upset the already precarious relationship between the Israeli government and the Diaspora. There is no other way to interpret the Israeli Cabinet’s spineless decision yesterday to accede to the ultra-Orthodox members of the coalition…
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Fast Forward Ultra-Orthodox Push To Scrap Western Wall Deal On Egalitiarian Prayer
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Haredi Orthodox parties in Israel’s government have proposed a new resolution that would rescind a government decision to create an official egalitarian section at the Western Wall. The proposal was approved by the Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz, and would keep in place the egalitarian prayer area erected at Robinson’s Arch,…
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