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 Rhythm of Day at Western Wall Driven by Timeless — and Disputed — Tradition
Jane Eisner’s special report, A Day at the Kotel, will run in three parts, starting today and continuing tomorrow and Wednesday. Each piece focuses on a different time of day at the Western Wall, and the implications for the battle over the future of Judaism’s holiest site. The shops are still shuttered as I walk…
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News Benjamin Netanyahu Strongly Backs Kotel Plan in Meeting With American Jews
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to reassure Diaspora Jewish leaders that redesign plans remain on track for the Western Wall plaza that will allow greater scope there for non-Orthodox prayer services. In a June 27 meeting with Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism and with Natan Sharansky, head of the…
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Opinion Family of the Wall
Comedian Sarah Silverman is known for her outrageous shtick. But her sister, Rabbi Susan Silverman, and niece, Hallel, have become leading members of the Israeli activist group Women of the Wall, which fights for women’s rights to pray as they see fit at the Western Wall. The Silvermans are well known for their involvement in…
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Opinion Kotel Struggle a Civil Rights Battle for Jews
Fifty years ago civil rights activists staged a sit-in at the lunch counter of Woolworth’s in Jackson Mississippi to protest the segregated seating which existed, mandating separate areas for black and white patrons. Young students from nearby Tougaloo College, both black and white, sat together at the “whites only” counter, waiting futilely to be served….
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Fast Forward Security Guard Arrested in ‘Allah Akbar’ Killing Near Western Wall
A Jewish Israeli man was shot and killed by a security guard Friday morning at the Western Wall. The security guard, a 25-year-old man from northern Israel, is being held by police on suspicion of murder. Magen David Adom paramedics tried to resuscitate 46-year-old Doron Ben-Shloosh, whose name was revealed by police on Friday afternoon,…
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Fast Forward Palestinians Object to Natan Sharansky’s Compromise Plan for Western Wall
The Palestinian Authority objects to changing the configuration of the Temple Mount plaza in order to accommodate an egalitarian prayer area, a PA official said. “Any change in the Temple Mount is unacceptable to the Palestinians or Arabs. It’s a change of our heritage site and I believe that such a change will push us…
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Opinion Anti-Orthodox Profiling Let Women Pray at Kotel
At Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the use of racial profiling is so controversial that it is the subject of a legal challenge by human rights advocates. But what about a different type of profiling — religious profiling — and of all places at the Western Wall? As we reported, the tables were turned at the…
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Fast Forward Fierce Western Wall Confrontation Looms as Women Plan Torah Reading
Women of the Wall announced plans to read from a Torah scroll at its upcoming service at the Western Wall. Also leading up to Sunday’s service, several leading haredi Orthodox rabbis called on thousands of haredi men to gather for a mass prayer opposite Women of the Wall. Women of the Wall gathers at the…
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