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
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Fast Forward These U.S. Jews Are Looking Beyond The Kotel – To Prayer On The Temple Mount
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Liberal American Jews are feeling thwarted in their years-long campaign for the right to pray as they wish at the Western Wall. Long frustrated that the plaza in front of the wall is run as an Orthodox synagogue, they were doubly incensed when Israel’s political establishment scrapped an agreement that would have boosted access to…
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Community Confused By Israeli Capitulation To The Ultra-Orthodox? You Must Not Understand Coalition Politics.
I’m appalled by the recent action taken by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse the cabinet decision to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall — but I don’t blame Bibi alone. The Israeli electoral system necessitates the inclusion of the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) to form any government. A more liberal leader would…
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Opinion Did Bibi Badly Miscalculate Liberal Rage Over Western Wall?
Benjamin Netanyahu has miscalculated. In the days since the Israeli prime minister reneged on a decision that would have allowed men and women to pray together at Jerusalem’s holy Western Wall, the outrage among American Jews is only getting worse. The carefully-crafted agreement, adopted by Netanyahu’s cabinet in January 2016 with input from Israeli and…
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Fast Forward Fed-Up Reform Leaders Are Thinking Twice About Their Donations To Israel
NEW YORK (JTA) — Daryl Messinger knows she’s going to visit Israel again. But the next time she flies there, it won’t be on El Al. Messinger, the chair of the Union for Reform Judaism, will be boycotting Israel’s national airline as part of her protest of the Israeli government’s two votes last week that…
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Fast Forward Britney Spears Mobbed At Western Wall Ahead Of Tel Aviv Concert
JERUSALEM (JTA) – American pop icon Britney Spears was mobbed by fans during a visit to the Western Wall. Spears arrived in Israel Sunday, ahead of her concert scheduled for Monday evening at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. It is her first visit to Israel. Excited fans mobbed Spears, including jumping on her, during her…
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Fast Forward Hundreds In Jerusalem Protest Bills Bashing Liberal Jews
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem to protest government moves seen as targeting liberal streams of Judaism. The protesters who gathered in Jerusalem on Saturday night carried signs including “Judaism without coercion,” and “We are all Women of the Wall.” The demonstration was organized by…
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Fast Forward Netanyahu Denies Blaming Liberal Jews For Western Wall Crisis
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has flatly denied a report that it instructed diplomats to blame non-Orthodox Jews for the controversy over the Western Wall. Israeli diplomats in North America were told to blame the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements for the ongoing crisis in relations between Israel’s government and U.S. Jewry,…
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Fast Forward Reform Leader: ‘Be Strategic’ With Donations To Israel After Western Wall Debacle
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of the Union for Reform Judaism, suggested American Jews should use donations to Israel to push for the rights of all denominations in an interview with Times of Israel. “It’s a moment to be smart and strategic about all the money we give to Israel, and to contribute to things…
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