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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Fast Forward Natan Sharansky’s Western Wall Prayer Plan Loses Support — On Both Sides
Natan Sharansky’s proposal to reduce tensions at the Western Wall has lost support from both traditional supporters and opponents of egalitarian prayer at the holy site. When Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, made the plan public a few weeks ago, it received at least tacit approval from a range of activists, including…
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Fast Forward Women Plan To Read From Torah Scrolls in Western Wall Push
Women seeking equal prayer rights at the Western Wall are planning a further challenge to Jewish Orthodox tradition at the site after a court ruling bolstered their cause, an activist said on Sunday. The Women of the Wall movement hopes to have its members read from a Torah (holy scriptures) scroll at the Jerusalem site,…
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Fast Forward Kotel Rabbi Questions Natan Sharansky’s Plan for Egalitarian Prayer
Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said rabbis must weigh whether to oppose a compromise proposal over egalitarian prayer at Judaism’s holiest site. In a statement Thursday, Rabinowitz vowed to fight against “the slightest deviation” from customary practice at the Western Wall. However, he left unclear whether the compromise forged by Jewish Agency…
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News Women Win Landmark Court Decision on Western Wall Prayer
Images of police detaining women for public worship at the Western Wall could be a thing of the past, after an important ruling today by the Jerusalem District Court. A judge considered the main grounds that police cite for detaining members of Women of the Wall, the interdenominational feminist group that gathers monthly for prayers…
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News Sharansky Gets Green Light from Netanyahu on Western Wall Expansion
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky was given a green light by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue his plan for a permanent egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall. Netanyahu told Sharansky to continue reviewing the situation with Zvi Hauser, the director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, and Yaakov Amidror, Netanyahu’s national security…
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Israel News Natan Sharansky’s Kotel Compromise Gives Him New Heft as Liaison to Diaspora
Fueled by his success in brokering an unlikely deal on women’s prayer at the Western Wall, Natan Sharansky could be entering a new phase in his career as the key interlocutor between Israel and American Jews, a task viewed as urgent on both sides of the Jewish world’s divide. Once the celebrated champion of the…
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Fast Forward Orthodox Face of Women of the Wall
Earlier this month, while several hundred women held their monthly Rosh Chodesh prayer service at the Western Wall, a group of ultra-Orthodox men jeered loudly at them from across the barrier separating men and women. “Reform Jews, get out of here,” they shouted. “Reform Jews do not belong to the people of Israel. Reform Jews,…
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News Kotel Compromise; Supportive Rabbis; Hezbollah’s Paper Pushers; Vice’s Vices
In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward editor Jane Eisner to discuss a compromise — wrangled by former Soviet dissident Natan Scharansky — to allow egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. Then, digital features editor Abigail Jones phones in to tell the story of how Akiva Herzfeld, a Maine…
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