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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Israel News These Orthodox Girls Are Rebelling — Against Women’s Prayer At The Western Wall
For years, women in Israel have been fighting for the right to pray out loud at Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall, just like men. But now, a group of girls has risen up to defend the status quo. On Tuesday, February 28, at least 1,000 female high school students were bused there to protest…
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Fast Forward David Rubinger, Who Took Iconic Western Wall Photo, Dies At 92
David Rubinger, the Israeli photographer who snapped the iconic photograph of soldiers at the Western Wall in 1967, died on Thursday at the age of 92. The photograph has come to symbolize both the military and spiritual significance of Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day War against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. But Rubinger apparently…
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Community What Are The ‘Women Of The Wall’ Haters So Afraid Of?
Women are used to being silenced. Women are used to having their ideas belittled and their success made to seem unimportant. Today I went to the Kotel to join Women of the Wall — whose only goal was to make our voices heard—in prayer, at the holiest site in modern Judaism. I joined a service…
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Fast Forward Hundreds Of Orthodox Students Try To Disrupt Women Of The Wall Service
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hundreds of haredi Orthodox men and women and religious Zionist female seminary students attempted to disrupt the monthly Rosh Chodesh morning service of the Women of the Wall group. About 150 women gathered in the women’s section of the Western Wall Plaza to celebrate the new Jewish month of Adar. Some of…
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Fast Forward WATCH: Western Wall Bat Mitzvah Interrupted By Orthodox Protest
A Western Wall bat mitzvah on Monday morning was interrupted by whistling protesters who sought to disrupt the coming-of-age ceremony. Twelve-year-old Hod Hasharon native Noa Brenner celebrated her bat mitzvah at the monthly prayer service of Women of the Wall, a feminist group advocating for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall holy site. According to…
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Fast Forward WATCH: Right-Wing Orthodox Group Accuses Women Of The Wall Of ‘Debasement’
A right-wing Orthodox group announced a protest against Women of the Wall at the feminist group’s upcoming prayer service next week with a dramatic video calling on supporters to end the “debasement” of the Western Wall. Women of the Wall said that video “all but calls for violence against Women of the Wall,” in a…
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Opinion Our Cherished Wall in Jerusalem Increasingly Divides Us
I was in Jerusalem for a week last month, and I never once went to the Kotel. This was unusual for me. On my many prior stays in Israel, the ancient stones of the Western Wall were like a magnet, drawing me close and stripping away my journalistic skepticism, leaving me feeling a little more…
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Fast Forward Women Bring Torah Scroll to Western Wall Prayer Service
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Original Women of the Wall group held a prayer service in the women’s section of the Western Wall that included a Torah scroll. It was the first time that women have succeeded in bringing in and reading from a Torah scroll at the Western Wall since an interim Supreme Court ruling said…
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