Israeli Cabinet Allocates Stretch of Western Wall to Non-Orthodox Jewish Denominations

If Israel’s Cabinet approves the plan in a vote expected on Sunday, advocates say it would mark unprecedented government support for liberal streams of Judaism.

The new prayer section would enable men and women to pray together in a space comprising hundreds of square metres (square yards) around the archaeological site known as Robinson’s Arch, which has over the years hosted egalitarian ceremonies. Violent incidents had even broken out in the past between ultra-Orthodox Jews and “Women of the Wall”.

Orthodox Jews voted against the move but said they accepted the decision.

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. Banished from Jerusalem by the Romans who destroyed the temple in 70 AD, Jews would in subsequent centuries come to the city to pray at a 190-foot-wide stretch of the exterior wall that had not been blocked off by buildings.

“We will offer an option to all Israelis and Jews from around the world to express their Judaism”, she said.

More liberal streams of Judaism, which outside of Israel have larger followings than Orthodoxy, chafe at the restriction.

“I said the most important point was that a big part and maybe a majority of American Jews identify themselves with the Reform and Conservative movements, and the fact that they can not pray near the wall with the same prayer that they do in their synagogues is viewed by them as the refusal of the State of Israel to recognize them as a legitimate part of the Jewish people”, he said. Unlike in the USA, most Jews in Israel, while secular, follow Orthodox traditions. Women will also be allowed to lead services and read from the Jewish holy book known as the Torah, according to the decision approved by the cabinet.

The new prayer site is tough to accept for the ultra-Orthodox, who consider the sight of women carrying Torah scrolls and wearing religious articles traditionally reserved for men to be a provocation.

The new mixed-gender prayer area will be built beside the the current male and female prayer sites and will be managed by a separate committee which includes representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements.

“It’s not going to be run by an Orthodox rabbi”, Pruce said.

Sharansky said he worked on the issue with the Women of the Wall (WOW), including with Hoffman, who has been a leader in the fight for religious pluralism in Israel.

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”.

Sheikh Yousef Adeis, Palestinian Waqf and Religious Affairs Minister, said that the plan is seen by Palestinians as another attempt by Israel to expand the Jewish presence and assert its dominance over the flash point Temple Mount complex, said Haaretz. “All this problem with Reform and Conservatives never existed in Israel, and there is no reason it should now”, Deri told Army Radio.