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 This Tisha B’Av, I’ll Mourn For The Destruction Of Jewish Unity
When the Israeli government announced its decision last month to halt the construction and planning of a pluralistic prayer space near the Western Wall, the outcry from the Diaspora Jewish community was enormous. The proposed plan didn’t even offer a shared space at the Western Wall; it referred to an area further south by Robinson’s…
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Fast Forward Israel Insists To Court It Will Expand Western Wall Egalitarian Prayer Space
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The government of Israel told the nation’s Supreme Court that it plans to expand and upgrade a space for non-Orthodox prayer at the southern section of the Western Wall near Robinson’s Arch. The government made the declaration in documents submitted to the court in response to a petition filed by the non-Orthodox…
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Fast Forward Why Were There No Women On The Chief Rabbinate’s ‘Blacklist’?
NEW YORK (JTA) – The Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s so-called “blacklist” of Diaspora rabbis runs the denominational gamut. The rabbis on the list, who got there by writing letters confirming the Jewish identities of immigrants that were rejected by the Chief Rabbinate in 2016, are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform — and even from the smaller Reconstructionist and…
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Fast Forward French, British Jewish Leaders Make Divergent Statements On Kotel Controversy
(JTA) — Leaders of British and French Jews issued divergent statements about the controversy over egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. In London, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Arkush, recently condemned the decision of the Israeli government not to implement a plan to expand separate spaces for mixed prayer at the Western Wall. The…
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Community Sorry, Netanyahu: The Diaspora Won’t Take This Betrayal Lying Down
On the morning of July 12, I read a piece in the Opinion Page of the New York Times titled “Israel to American Jews: You Just Don’t Matter” by Thomas L. Friedman. In this piece, Friedman states that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu has yielded to the whims of the Orthodox and has basically…
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Opinion Orthodoxy Is Not Victimized By The Kotel Compromise
In his Forward column titled “Kotel Controversy Shows That U.S. Jewish Groups Don’t Represent The Orthodox,” Avi Shafran claims that the American Orthodox community has been treated like “chopped liver” in recent debates over the Western Wall and conversion law in Israel. While I acknowledge American Orthodox voices have been missing in the news coverage…
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Community Support Religious Pluralism In Israel? First, Take A Stand For Pluralism At Home
For the first time in recent memory, the mainstream Jewish community is outraged at the Israeli government. After reaching an agreement with Women of the Wall and the Reform and Conservative movements to establish a new egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall, the government reneged on its promise and suspended its plan. At the…
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Opinion The Kotel Crisis Might Be For The Best — It Will Reinvigorate Judaism
Maybe the Israeli government’s decision to kill the Western Wall agreement should be viewed not as a humiliating slap in the face, but as an opportunity to redefine our goals as non-Orthodox Jews. Liberal American Jews, like myself, felt so hurt and angry that the Israeli government reneged on its promise to create an egalitarian…
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