Cabinet approves egalitarian prayer space at Western Wall

In historic decision, cabinet votes to build new plaza for mixed gender prayer at Western Wall, adjacent to gender-separated Orthodox plaza • PM Benjamin Netanyahu praises plan as “creative solution” • Ultra-Orthodox officials call plan “lesser of evils.”

Shlomo Cesana, Nitzi Yakov, Yehuda Shlezinger, Yori Yalon, Israel Hayom Staff and Associated Press

A rendering of the new egalitarian prayer space to be established at the Western Wall

The cabinet voted Sunday to allow non-Orthodox Jewish prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a move advocates said marked a historic show of government support for liberal streams of Judaism.

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.

“I know this is a sensitive topic, but I think it is an appropriate solution, a creative solution,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, where members voted on the plan.

“The most complex problems usually require such solutions,” he said.

The plan was approved by a 15-5 margin. The five ministers who voted against it were Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas), Religious Services Minister David Azoulay (Shas), Health Minister Yakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism), Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Habayit Hayehudi) and Immigrant Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud).

According to the government plan, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, Israel will build a new plaza for mixed gender prayer at the Western Wall, adjacent to the Orthodox prayer plaza but separate from it.

The Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella group of Jewish communities, issued a joint statement with the Reform and Conservative movements calling the decision a “dramatic, unprecedented and critical acknowledgment” by Israel that the holy site should incorporate liberal Jewish prayer traditions.

“Though much work regarding the implementation of this decision still remains, it is because of our perseverance and commitment to Jewish peoplehood that we are measurably closer today to the ultimate symbol of that reality — one wall for one people,” the statement read.

The Western Wall, a remnant of the ancient Jewish Temple complex, is the holiest site where Jews may pray. The site is administered by ultra-Orthodox rabbinic authorities, who have a monopoly over religious affairs in Israel. There are separate men’s and women’s prayer sections and non-Orthodox prayer, like mixed-gender services and women-led prayers, are forbidden.

A leading women’s prayer group, Women of the Wall, caused controversy for years by holding monthly non-Orthodox prayers at the site. Police arrested women carrying Torah scrolls and wearing religious articles traditionally reserved for men, practices ultra-Orthodox Jews oppose and consider a provocation.

The Reform and Conservative movements of Judaism have supported the group’s cause and demanded representation at the holy site.

Netanyahu appointed a committee in 2013, led by the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, to seek solutions for non-Orthodox prayer there. Shortly afterward, a temporary prayer platform was erected for mixed-gender prayer, but advocates say it was not an official site and was not always open.

The $9 million initiative will build a permanent mixed-gender prayer area where the temporary platform is today. It will also create a new entrance to the Western Wall area so both Orthodox and non-Orthodox prayer areas will be given equal prominence. The pluralistic prayer area will not be managed by the ultra-Orthodox rabbi of the Western Wall, but by a committee including representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements. The new prayer area will allow Women of the Wall to hold women’s prayers.

Women of the Wall Chairwoman Anat Hoffman said, “This is a dramatic and meaningful victory for the women of Israel and the people of Israel.”

Shira Pruce, the director of public relations for Women of the Wall, said the government’s decision “stands to open the floodgates of women’s rights in the public sphere in Israel … and opens the floodgates for Jewish pluralism in Israel. This is unprecedented change.”

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the head of the Reform Movement in Israel, said, “The decision grants unprecedented recognition of Reform and Conservative Judaism and it means the end of the ultra-Orthodox monopoly at the Western Wall.”

Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, which works to strengthen ties between Israeli and American Jews, said, “Israel is sending a message to the 70% of U.S. Jews who are not Orthodox that their connection with Israel is important to the Jewish state.”

Shmuel Rabinowitz, the chief rabbi of the Western Wall, said in a statement that he received news of the decision “with a heavy heart and a sigh of relief.”

Rabinowitz said, “Ever since the fringe and vociferous group of Women of the Wall started its mass-media activity,” the sacred place “went from being a unifying site to one of incessant quarrels. The Western Wall will continue to remain open to any worshipper — man or woman — at all hours of every day, with respect and loyalty to Jewish tradition and Jewish heritage, as the Western Wall is the clear symbol of these.”

Ariel said he opposed the initiative. It “gives standing to the Reform,” he told Army Radio. “Their intention is to create conflict and dispute. It’s not appropriate. The Western Wall is a place of unity.”

Deri also opposed the plan. “Israel for all of its years has been administered by devout Judaism,” Deri told Army Radio. “All this problem with Reform and Conservatives never existed in Israel, and there is no reason it should now.”

United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni said, “The Reform are a group of clowns who stick a knife in the holy Torah. There will never ever be recognition of this group of clowns, not at the Western Wall and not anywhere else.”

Off the record, a number of ultra-Orthodox officials called the plan that was approved on Sunday “the lesser of evils.”

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud) voted in favor of the plan, yet he nevertheless harshly criticized Reform Jews at Sunday’s cabinet meeting.

“The Reform Jews in the U.S. are a waning world,” Levin said. “The evidence is that a man who calls himself a Reform rabbi is standing there with a priest and weds Hillary Clinton’s daughter [Chelsea, married to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky], and no one condemns it, thereby legitimizing it.”

Israel’s Orthodox rabbinical establishment wields a monopoly over key aspects of religious life in the country, such as marriage, divorce and burials, while Reform and Conservative rabbis are not recognized and their movements are largely marginalized. Unlike in the U.S., most Jews in Israel, while secular, follow Orthodox traditions.