Israel to open more spaces at Western Wall

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed the decision by Israel’s cabinet to establish a permanent and official space at the Western Wall for mixed gender prayer at Judaism’s holiest site.

TEL AVIV – Israel’s government on Sunday approved a compromise to expand the non-Orthodox Jewish prayer section of the Western Wall, putting to rest the decades-long fight between Women of the Wall and Israel’s haredi Orthodox religious establishment.

Correspondents say the dispute over the wall became a symbol of the greater tensions in Israeli society between ultra-Orthodox Jews, who abide by a very strict interpretation of Jewish law, and more modern elements of Judaism.

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Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said he received the government decision with a “heavy heart and a sigh of relief”, adding that the Women of the Wall had turned the site into one of “incessant quarrels”.

“This is really groundbreaking for both women’s rights and Jewish pluralism in Israel”, said Shira Pruce, spokeswoman for the group Women of the Wall. “We’ll continue to argue for equal treatment for our rabbis”, said Wernick, who participated in the negotiations over mixed-gender prayer. More liberal Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism are dominant in the USA.

But Deri insisted the government was forced into doing the bad deal because of the High Court of Justice, which was expected to rule in two weeks that the government had to create an area at the Kotel proper for women to hold women-only prayer services that include public Torah readings and use of tallits and teffilin. It recognises that Judaism is an inclusive religion with a variety of different but valid expressions.

The government is to allot millions of dollars to renovate the pluralistic worship area, where liberal groups have been allowed to pray since 2000. 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.

The Orthodox and non-Orthodox sections of the Western Wall will share an entrance near the Old City of Jerusalem’s Dung Gate, one story above the Western Wall plaza’s current entrance.

“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”.

On its other side is the compound housing the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.

The Women of the Wall protests attracted global attention three years ago when the United States comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted in response to the arrests of her sister, Susan, and niece, Hallel: “So proud of my wonderful sister and niece for their ballsout civil disobedience”.