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 WATCH: Tens of Thousands Thank God for Harvest at Western Wall
Coming after the High Holidays, Sukkot – the Jewish festival of the harvest – is for most a low key affair. But not so for the crowd of worshipers who gathered Wednesday in front of the Western Wall for a holiday prayer session. Numbering in the tens of thousands, the group congregated to recite a…
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Opinion It’s Not Just the Palestinians Who Are Getting the UNESCO Temple Mount Resolution All Wrong
UNESCO’s most recent resolution on Jerusalem is offensive and disrespectful. Passed on October 13 by a vote of 24 to 6, with 26 abstentions, the resolution refers to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall by its Muslim names only, an act which ignores history and fact and negates Jewish and Christian beliefs about the…
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Fast Forward Reform and Conservative Jews Press Suit To Force Israel To Honor Western Wall Prayer Deal
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…
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Opinion Jewish Extremists Want the Western Wall? I Say Let Them Have It.
The latest campaign by leaders of the Reform movement of American Judaism to galvanize support for equal-access prayer at the Western Wall, known as Judaism’s “holiest site,” is a morally worthy goal. Given the remarkable degree of religious freedom enjoyed by the vast majority of Americans, an idea encoded in our very Constitution, it is…
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Israel News Reform Jews Kick Off Letter-Writing Campaign on Western Wall Prayer
The Union for Reform Judaism has kicked off a letter writing campaign to the Israeli government to pressure it to implement its plan for an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall Jewish holy site. Timed with the Jewish New Year, the organization is urging supporters to email a pre-written letter to Israeli Prime Minister…
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Fast Forward Hundreds of Letters to God Delivered to Western Wall Ahead of High Holy Days
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hundreds of letters addressed to “God,” Our Heavenly Father” and other monikers, as well as to the Kotel, were delivered to the Western Wall. The letters, which usually arrive without a return address and are sent to the Israel Post Lost and Found Department, are delivered before the Jewish high holidays to…
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Fast Forward Israelis and Americans Back Non-Orthodox Conversion — and Pluralism at Kotel
— A large majority of American and Israeli Jews say Israel should recognize marriages and conversions performed by Reform and Conservative rabbis. A poll conducted by The Jerusalem Post and the American Jewish Committee found that 74 percent of American Jews and 62 percent of Israeli Jews believe the non-Orthodox rites should be recognized. The findings…
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Fast Forward Judges Slam Israeli Government for Refusing To Implement Western Wall Prayer Deal
Israeli Supreme Court justices chastised the government for not implementing the government’s plan to create an ecumenical prayer section at the Western Wall. Monday’s hearing was in response to a 3-year-old petition complaining about the treatment of egalitarian worshippers at the site. At the hearing, the justices called for the plan to be implemented. The…
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