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
-
Opinion American Jewish Unity In Favor of Egalitarian Kotel Is a Fiction
It might be hard to imagine the hardline Israeli Haredi parties and the hardline feminist “Original Women of the Wall” group as occupying the same library, much less the same page. But that’s where they find themselves. It’s not just that both are hardline, and that both reject the compromise idea of an egalitarian Western…
-
Opinion Why Israel’s Two-Kotel Solution Reminds Me of Two-State Solution
When the Israeli cabinet approved a proposal intended to resolve a festering conflict between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews at the Western Wall, no one seemed to notice the parallels between this “two-wall solution” and the “two-state solution” that many leaders have proposed to resolve the long-simmering conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Both of these “solutions”…
-
News Non-Orthodox Groups Threaten Fight Over Kotel If Israel Scraps Deal
TEL AVIV — The Conservative and Reform movements in Israel are considering some drastic measures as part of a planned offensive over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem for egalitarian prayer if the government backs away from a long and drawn-out compromise to which it agreed. With that plan now at risk due to…
-
Opinion Why Don’t We Wail Over the Arab Homes Destroyed for Our Kotel?
Over the past few months I have repeatedly been asked my opinion about the compromise agreement — now itself — to create an egalitarian prayer space adjacent to the Western Wall. As I watched women and men with tallitot and tefillin reading from the Torah and singing in celebration, I was grateful that after many years…
-
Life Who Is To Blame for Collapse of Kotel Prayer Deal?
The Kotel prayer agreement appears to be going south — leaving us to ask how Israeli leaders from across the spectrum failed to deliver on an agreement that looked like a done deal. “The deal” of course, is about the Kotel, or Western Wall, and Robinson’s Arch — and who gets to pray where and how. These…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion Mamdani has made ample efforts for Jews. How come no one is telling that story?
- 2
Opinion New York’s Israel Day parade was a shanda — but not because of Mamdani
- 3
News Nearly half of young U.S. Jews want to replace Israel with binational state, poll finds
- 4
News Floyd Mayweather showered cash on Jewish causes — and now he’s suing their ‘Robin Hood’ alleging $175 million got diverted
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump says Netanyahu ‘turned his Troops around’ after he asked Israel not to bomb Beirut
-
Fast Forward Smotrich’s surprise appearance at Israel Day Parade sparks backlash from NY and Jewish leaders
-
Fast Forward Scott Wiener, Spencer Pratt and Eric Swalwell’s replacement: 5 primaries Jews are watching in California
-
Fast Forward Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie team up to strip US-Israel military tech cooperation from defense bill