Wall for all: Progressive Jews welcome ‘landmark’ decision at Kotel

The Cabinet decision was hailed by the head of the Reform movement in Israel, Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who said it was the first time the government has given official recognition to non-Orthodox Jewish movements.

Major changes are happening at one of the holiest and most sacred sites of Judaism-Jerusalem’s Western Wall.

Traditionally, only Orthodox Jews are allowed to pray at the Western Wall – and men and women are kept separate.

Reform, Masorti movements say compromises were necessary, haredim vote against decision but did not fight to defeat it. “This is something we are doing for Israel, to help build a vibrant democratic state”.

The women’s demands were anathema to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox religious establishment, which manages the site.

For years, a liberal Jewish women’s group has angered ultra-Orthodox Jews by holding prayers that do not follow Orthodox religious restrictions on women.

The place where a plaza for mixed-gender prayer will be placed at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem’s Old City, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016.

The most recent attack came Tuesday afternoon, when Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush, of the haredi Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, was reported as saying that the Women of the Wall organization should be “thrown to the dogs”, and expressed satisfaction that the new egalitarian section will be in an “out-of-the-way corner”.

Three years ago, Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency, proposed a new egalitarian prayer space as a compromise, but it was only considered a temporary solution.

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. Previously, the Kotel – the Hebrew name for the Western Wall – was run under Orthodox rule and had allowed only for separate prayer spaces for men and women.

Administration of the Wall, long in the hands of ultra-Orthodox rabbinic authorities, will pass to a committee that will also comprise liberal rabbis and representatives of the government and the women’s reform group. Since then, a temporary prayer platform was built for Conservative Jews, but they said it was not always available for them to use. “It’s totally clear that the most minimal step of giving access to every Jew according to his views and beliefs in this holy place is the most basic thing that is required”, said Yedidia Stern of the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.

Also Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Israeli criticism of attacks on its settlement policy unsustainable in an opinion piece published by The New York Times, doubling down on comments earlier in the week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said encouraged terrorism.

“We continue to seek equal funding”, she said.

“Equality of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation are central to Liberal Judaism and now at last liberal Jews can celebrate a Judaism in keeping with the modern world at our most holy site”.