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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Opinion Turning the Kotel Into a Haredi Synagogue Is Bad for Men, Too
Reading the substance of the new Western Wall deal, described in a news report posted by the Forward as a is heartbreaking. As Shulamit Magnus rightly argues in the Jerusalem Post, the Kotel is not now, nor has it ever been, a synagogue. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz is not the Wall’s mara de’atra (“master of the…
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Opinion Why the Kotel Compromise Just Isn’t Good Enough
When I woke to the news about the new policy for the Kotel, I was surprised to see so many of my friends celebrating. I suppose I should be, too: I’ve been wearing tefillin since I was bat mitzvahed over a decade ago. In that time, I have been to Israel twice, first with my…
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News American Reform and Conservative Jews Hail Western Wall’s ‘Liberation’
Some of the loudest cheering for Sunday’s historic deal to create an egalitarian prayer space at Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall, came from 7,000 miles away. Reform and Conservative leaders in America called it the Israeli government’s first serious step to honor religious plurality in Israel, where the ultra Orthodox largely control Jewish expression…
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News Non-Orthodox, Diaspora Leaders — and Bibi — Praise Western Wall Deal
JERUSALEM — A chorus of non-Orthodox and Diaspora leaders praised the landmark interdenominational compromise on the Western Wall. The compromise will expand the wall’s egalitarian section and place it under the authority of a pluralist committee, while solidifying haredi Orthodox control over the site’s traditional, Orthodox section. Women of the Wall, the women’s prayer group…
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News Western Wall Prayer Fight Ends With Historic Compromise
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israel’s government on Sunday approved a compromise to expand the non-Orthodox Jewish prayer section of the Western Wall, putting to rest the decades-long fight between Women of the Wall and Israel’s haredi Orthodox religious establishment. The deal achieves what had been an elusive goal: an interdenominational consensus on Judaism’s holiest site…
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Fast Forward Ultra-Orthodox Lawmaker To Block Funding for Western Wall Expansion
TEL AVIV — The chair of the Knesset Finance Committee intends to block funding for a plan to expand the non-Orthodox prayer section of the Western Wall, a source familiar with the plan told JTA. Moshe Gafni of the haredi Orthodox United Torah Judaism party intends to use his committee post to deny the approximately…
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Fast Forward Israel Cabinet Plans Vote on Western Wall Egalitarian Prayer Plan
TEL AVIV — Israel’s Cabinet is expected to vote Sunday on a proposal that would expand the non-Orthodox section of the Western Wall. The details of the proposal have not been released, but negotiations over expanding the non-Orthodox site — a segment of the wall called Robinson’s Arch, south of the traditional prayer site —…
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Fast Forward Women of the Wall Slams Bibi Over Reports of No Change at Western Wall
The Women of the Wall group vowed to continue reading from the Torah in the women’s section of the Kotel in the wake of a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised haredi Orthodox parties that it still would not be allowed. Army Radio reported Tuesday that Netanyahu met last week with the haredi parties…
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