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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Life Kotel Chaos Explained: Who Threw Whom Under the Bus, and Why
Editor’s Note: The fight for women’s prayer rights at the Western Wall, or Kotel, has been going on for so long and has so many twists and turns that we thought we’d ask one of the original activists to help our readers understand the saga. “Things are not always what they seem.”—Pheadrus There is so…
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News Kotel Egalitarian Prayer Advocates Have Faith Bibi Will Enforce Deal
(JTA) The Western Wall rabbi just denounced the Western Wall deal. Its supporters aren’t worried. And Women of the Wall activists are looking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back them up. In January, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz agreed to a historic compromise with non-Orthodox leaders over the future of the holy site. On…
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Fast Forward Western Wall Rabbi Now Opposes Egalitarian Prayer Plan
The Western Wall rabbi withdrew his support for a deal establishing a separate egalitarian prayer section at the holy site. Shmuel Rabinowitz in a letter Monday urged ultra-Orthodox party leaders to introduce legislation to cancel the Jan. 31 deal and a 2013 district court ruling allowing the Women of the Wall group to pray in…
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Fast Forward Religion Minister Vows To Block Western Wall Egalitarian Prayer
The Chief Rabbinate canceled a meeting with the prime minister over the government’s plan to expand the egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall a day after the Rabbinate said it would create its own plan. The meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set for Sunday. Hours after the meeting was canceled, the former…
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Fast Forward Women’s Western Wall Prayer Session Attacked by Ultra-Orthodox Protesters
A women’s prayer service at the Western Wall was disturbed by protesting haredi Orthodox men and women. The Original Women of the Wall group held morning services on Monday using a small Torah scroll that they smuggled in for the service. The more than 20 women were wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries. According to a…
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News Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Slams Reform Jews as ‘Heretics’ — but Backs Western Wall Prayer Deal Anyway
(JTA) — Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, former chief rabbi of Jerusalem’s Old City, is no fan of Reform and Conservative Judaism. In a letter sent Thursday to Israel’s chief rabbis, the haredi Orthodox Nebenzahl calls the movements “heretical religions.” They are “uprooting the religion and hurting everything holy to us,” he writes. “Their war against the…
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Fast Forward Ultra-Orthodox Man Burns Reform Prayer Book at Western Wall
A haredi Orthodox man burned a Reform prayer book while protesting a women’s prayer service at the Western Wall. The man, Itamar Gadassi, set the book on fire during the monthly service Wednesday of Women of the Wall, which meets at the wall’s women’s section. Protesters regularly shout epithets at the group and have thrown…
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Fast Forward Women of the Wall Draws 100 to Prayer Service After Kotel Deal
Women of the Wall drew 100 women to its monthly service a week and a half after the adoption of a compromise over the future of prayer at the Western Wall. Haredi Orthodox protesters shouted insults at the worshippers Wednesday, according to a press release from the group, which conducts monthly services in the wall’s…
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