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 Orthodox Push Back on Kotel
The rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz isn’t opposed to the plan for an egalitarian prayer section there, he announced in a statement emailed to reporters yesterday. But it’s already clear that he doesn’t speak for the Haredi mainstream. Rabinowitz is Haredi, but softer on religious issues than most Haredi leaders. This is partly…
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Fast Forward Five Women Detained at Monthly Kotel Protest
Israeli police detained five women activists on Thursday at the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s most sacred sites, for wearing prayer shawls, which Orthodox tradition sees as solely for men, a spokesman said. The incident occurred during a monthly prayer session by the Women of the Wall, a group opposed to police-enforced Orthodox controls at…
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Opinion Reimagining the Kotel
We tend to think of the Kotel, the massive white stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, as a scene frozen in time, ancient and immutable — men praying on one side, women on another, a strictly Orthodox synagogue on Judaism’s holiest plot of land. But the mechitzah separating men and women has been there…
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News Real Battle Over Western Wall Is Just Beginning in Israel
American Jews and others pushing for religious pluralism at Judaism’s most accessible sacred space may have won a major advance for their cause with the new compromise proposal put forth by Natan Sharansky. But it is only now, in Israel, that the real debate begins. The Western Wall, or the Kotel, as it is known…
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News Natan Sharansky’s Historic Western Wall Compromise Still Faces Plenty of Obstacles
Natan Sharansky has presented what could be a historic proposal to add a space for egalitarian prayer to the Western Wall. Israeli religious pluralism activists, however, fear that the proposal will take years to implement and could face roadblocks that prevent it from coming to fruition. The proposal, first reported by the Forward, would expand…
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News Kotel Egalitarian Prayer Plan Set in Motion by Dramatic Western Wall Compromise
A dramatic offer to set up a new egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall in Jerusalem was met with a no less dramatic willingness to compromise on behalf of all the major religious leaders in the American Jewish community. In a rare show of consensus, activists on the liberal side of the Reform movement…
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Life Anger Over Kotel Kaddish Ban Leads to Reversal
Outcry from Jews in Israel and the Diaspora has led the rabbi in charge of policies at the Kotel to back down from his plan to have women arrested for saying Kaddish, says Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall. At a meeting Thursday with Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel,…
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Fast Forward Natan Sharansky Vows Women Won’t Be Charged for Kaddish at Western Wall
Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky met Thursday with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, chairman of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, to express his shock at a letter sent by police warning that women would be arrested for reciting the Kaddish mourner’s prayer at the Western Wall. “The Kotel must continue to be a symbol of unity for…
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