JERUSALEM-In a rare instance of a Middle East dispute being resolved by compromise, the Israeli cabinet on Sunday allocated a stretch of Jerusalem’s Western Wall, hitherto reserved exclusively for Orthodox religious practices, to non-Orthodox Jewish denominations to follow their own prayer services as they wish. Advocates stated that this decision marked a significant part of history for the government to support liberal forms of Judaism.
Advertisement
He added that pressure from the Diaspora was critical in bringing the issue to front and center of the agenda for Israel-Diaspora relations, in particular from the Reform and Conservative movements in North America. The ultra-Orthodox minister of religious services, David Azoulay, has to sign off on the decision, which he opposes.
“So long as we are in the position of power and influence, we can never give recognition to the Reform [a catch-all phrase that in haredi parlance means all of the non-Orthodox Jewish movements]”.
The decision, based on a proposal by Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, was welcomed by liberal Jewish movements but condemned by ultra-Orthodox leaders, whose cabinet representatives voted against it.
The area will be located at the south of the Western Wall Plaza, near Robinson’s Arch, the area of the Kotel where, in 2013, women were first allowed to wear prayer shawls while praying at the Wall.
Traditional and separated men’s and women’s sections will remain at the Wall’s northern end, while the mixed gender section will be situated at its southern end. That has forced many Israelis to choose between a secular lifestyle that often ignores Jewish tradition and a stringent religious one dictated by the Orthodox that is often out of sync with democracy and modernity.
“In terms of human rights and the Jewish people”, Sharansky said Sunday, “it is the right thing to do”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns remarks by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers against Reform and Conservative Jewry.
The campaign for equal access to the Wall by all Jews was led in recent years by a group of Jerusalem women who called themselves Women of the Wall. That ruling may even have included a ordering a fully egalitarian prayer area be established at the Kotel proper and stripping the haredi Kotel rabbi of exclusive power over the holy site.
“That is the model that we’re looking for in all spheres of Jewish life in Israel, for people to have one place where they can choose different types of Jewish experiences”, she said.
Rabinowitz said he accepted the plan “with a heavy heart”, and that the Women of the Wall had turned the Western Wall into a place of “constant fighting”.
“The Reformers are a group of clowns who stick a knife in the holy Torah”, said Gafni, using the word “Reformers” as a catchall for all non-Orthodox groups.
Advertisement
“That is about to change”, said Rabbis Noa Sattah and Gilad Kariv, of the Israel Religious Action Centre and the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, in a statement.
