Israeli Cabinet approves liberal Jewish prayer at holy site

The new section for non-Orthodox mixed gender prayer will double the size and make permanent an area designated under a temporary compromise reached in 2013 after Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered a solution to be found to the dispute.

“The government approved this week a historic compromise that ensures that the Western Wall will continue to be a source of unity and inspiration for the entire Jewish people”.

In the past, there has been a small section designated for women, but most religious rites took place at the men’s section as dictated by Israel’s ultra-Orthodox religious establishment.

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man prays at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem’s Old City, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016.

Anat Hoffman, director of Women of the Wall – a feminist group that has been pushing for a solution to allow egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall – said government approval of the plan was a “wonderful gesture”.

According to the agreement, the area will be built and funded by the state and will be run by a joint committee of representatives from the government, the Reform and Conservative movements, the Jewish Agency, the Jewish Federations of North America, and Women of the Wall. Violent incidents had even broken out in the past between ultra-Orthodox Jews and “Women of the Wall”.

The plan comes after an nearly 30-year struggle by non-Orthodox Jews who have fought for extended rights for women at the holy site, and for mixed services. Following the Cabinet vote, Moshe Gafni, a leading ultra-Orthodox lawmaker, called Reform Jews “clowns” and said he would never recognize them.

“I am gratified that the cabinet voted this plan into existence”, said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, head of the Rabbinical Assembly, an worldwide association of Conservative rabbis.

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.

It is regularly challenged by the activist group Women of the Wall, sometimes setting off scuffles and police intervention. She added: “By approving this plan, the state acknowledges women’s full equality and autonomy at the Kotel and the imperative of freedom of choice in Judaism in Israel”.

Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Jerusalem, said those Jewish groups knew nothing about the Torah, prayer, or Judaism, and that their leaders desecrate the Sabbath and eat non-kosher food.

The area around the ancient wall, part of the first and second Jewish temples, is also a sensitive spot for Muslims, who consider the adjacent al-Aqsa mosque compound the third-holiest site in Islam.

“You have to understand that the Kotel Rabbi has been arguing for years in the courts saying that the “local customs” [he accepts at the holy site] are the existing prayer routines”, Deri said.