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 Kotel Ball Is in Tzipi Livni’s Court
Could Tzipi Livni be sweetening feminists before dropping a bombshell? As discussed earlier on Forward Thinking, Justice Minister Livni has just announced that she is working on legislation to criminalize the exclusion of women from the public sphere. The timing is interesting — just as she could find herself in a very awkward position on…
-
Fast Forward Reform and Conservative Leaders Demand Probe Into Violence at Western Wall
The heads of the Reform and Conservative movements will demand that Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein investigate the involvement of rabbis on the government payroll in Friday’s violent demonstrations at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Thousands of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators showed up at the Western Wall on Friday morning to protest against Women of the Wall, a…
-
News Women and Orthodox Waver Over Plan for Egalitarian Prayer at Western Wall
Two of the prime players who have been locked in struggle over how Jews should be allowed to pray at the Western Wall have a complicated relationship with the recent grand compromise that Jewish Agency leader Natan Sharansky has offered to solve their dispute. Both Anat Hoffman, whose group, Women of the Wall, seeks to…
-
Fast Forward Rabbis Recruit Ultra-Orthodox Girls for Western Wall Prayer Counter Protest
Thousands of girls from ultra-Orthodox seminaries in Jerusalem are expected to protest at the Western Wall on Friday, in response to a court ruling permitting the Women of the Wall prayer group to hold non-Orthodox services in the central plaza of the holy site. Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the head of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community,…
-
Fast Forward Women of Wall Brace for Confrontation at Monthly Western Wall Protest
Anticipating provocations by ultra-Orthodox individuals and groups at their monthly prayer service at the Western Wall on Friday, Women of the Wall have instructed supporters and activists planning to participate in the event not to “engage in conflict – verbal or physical” with any of the protesters. Ultra-Orthodox protesters have made a practice in recent…
-
Opinion The Case for a New Kotel
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of a bold plan to provide equal space for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem are greatly exaggerated. But that doesn’t mean they may not become true. Which is why it is so important that American Jews find every bit of common ground they can…
-
Fast Forward Confusion Reigns as Women Plan Monthly Prayer at Western Wall
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky presented his proposal on the Women of the Wall to the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women on Tuesday. The proposal to set up a new egalitarian prayer section at the holy site, which has the support of the Reform and Conservative movements, centers around renovating the Robinson’s Arch…
-
Fast Forward Reform Leader Rick Jacobs Backs Compromise Prayer Plan for Western Wall
The head of the Reform movement endorsed a plan for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. “At this moment I believe our path forward and our path is to support the bold, audacious proposals by Natan Sharansky,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said Friday at Connections 2013, the 36th International…
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
- 2
Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
- 3
Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
- 4
Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion What Democrats fighting Trump should learn from Germany’s failure to stop Hitler
-
Fast Forward 31st anniversary of AMIA bombing marked by ceremonies in Argentina, Israel and, for the first time, Congress
-
Fast Forward Mike Huckabee to Israel: End hostile treatment of Christian allies
-
Fast Forward Connie Francis, 20th-century star turned TikTok sensation, recorded an album of Jewish songs in 1960
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism