Men and Women Will Soon Pray Together at Jerusalem’s Western Wall

According to the Israeli news site Walla, Adeis claims that the entire retaining wall, including the Western Wall, is part of the complex and therefore “a holy Islamic site expropriated by Israel in 1967”.

For almost three decades, gender equality advocates fought – at times, literally – for the right of women to pray alongside men at the Western Wall, a famous prayer site in Israel.

The decision was welcomed by the more liberal Reform and Conservative Jewish movements in Israel and North America and the group Women of the Wall (WOW), which has long held monthly prayers – upsetting the Orthodox leaders of the site.

Although much work regarding the implementation of this decision still remains, the joint statement added, “We are measurably closer today to the ultimate symbol of that reality – one wall for one people”.

For the first time in Israel’s history, a new official mixed male-female prayer area will be established near the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, the country’s cabinet announced on Sunday. While the Reform and Conservative denominations are the largest overseas they are a small minority in Israel and have little political clout.

The issue is of particular importance to the Jewish community in the United States, where the more liberal Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism are dominant.

Under the agreement, the government and quasi-governmental Jewish Agency will provide most of the $8.8 million budget over a two-year period.

The new plan was approved by 15 government ministers, with five voting against. That area is split into prayer sections for men and women, although women are not allowed to read aloud from the Torah, wear prayer shawls or sing there. Ultra-Orthodox Jews have thrown rocks and plastic chairs at liberal worshippers.

The grand mufti of Jerusalem has condemned the agreement approved by Israel’s Cabinet to establish an egalitarian prayer area at the Western Wall.

“In 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”, said a spokeswoman from Women on the Wall, which endorsed the plan.

The expanded plaza will be built south of the main Western Wall prayer plaza, over ruins from the Temple and in an area known as Robinson’s Arch. “The fact that nobody is fully satisfied means everybody was listening”.

Orthodox and nationalist members of the cabinet were not happy about the decision, which some see as Netanyahu’s attempt to win over American support for Israel.

“It will be tolerant and equal and friendly”, she said.

Israel will use the expansion of the non-Orthodox section to carry out archaeological digs and “Judaicize the holy site”, he claimed.

It was hailed as a “victory” by liberal Jewish movements but denounced by ultra-Orthodox Jews.