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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News WATCH: Ultra-Orthodox Rip Up Prayer Book To Protest Western Wall Bat Mitzvah
A video by Israeli feminist organization Women of the Wall reveals an Orthodox man ripping a prayer book to shreds in protest of women reading at the Western Wall and an American girl’s bat mitzvah. Established in 1988, WOW gathers once a month at Rosh Hodesh to read from the Torah in protest of Orthodox…
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Fast Forward Defiant Reform and Conservative Worshippers Hold Western Wall Prayer Service
Conservative and Reform Jews held an egalitarian service at the Western Wall plaza, despite an order issued the previous day by the attorney general denying them permission to pray together at the plaza because it is not a designated area for prayer. The southern portion of the Western Wall, under Robinson’s Arch, is the area…
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Fast Forward Reform Rabbi Makes Fresh Push for Mixed Prayer at Western Wall
JERUSALEM — The head of the U.S. Reform movement led egalitarian prayers at the Western Wall plaza. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, on Monday held the prayer service with some 200 rabbis and lay leaders. Most were participating in a summer seminar at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a pluralist educational…
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Israel News Feminists Facing New Enemy in Western Wall Prayer Battle — Settlers
Non-Orthodox Jews and ultra-Orthodox Jews have been fighting over the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, for 28 years. The ultra-Orthodox want to maintain the status quo at the wall, where men’s and women’s section are separated by a partition. Liberal Jews want a place for men and women to pray together. Now another group has…
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Fast Forward 73-Year-Old Jewish Woman Struck by Rock While Praying at Western Wall
JERUSALEM — A 73-year-old Jewish woman praying at the Western Wall was struck in the head by a rock thrown from the Temple Mount above by Palestinian rioters. The woman suffered a light head injury in the attack on Tuesday, the first such attack on worshippers at the Western Wall in several years. Tuesday was…
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Opinion What We Orthodox Jews Must Do To Save the Western Wall
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…
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Fast Forward Egalitarian Worshippers Scuffle With Ultra-Orthodox at Western Wall
JERUSALEM — Haredi Orthodox men fought with Conservative and Reform Jewish activists taking part in an egalitarian prayer service Thursday afternoon at the Western Wall Plaza. Police worked to separate the dozens of haredi men from the crowd of worshippers. The haredi men whistled and sang loudly to distract the service, and later became physical…
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Israel News Western Wall Prayer Deal Crumbling as Rivals Stage Dueling ‘Provocations’
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…
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