Stop meddling

The July 1 editorial “Stop the Kotel Travesty” completely misses the point. Nobody really cares if Minister Miri Regev changes her mind or not. The issue is much bigger than that.

On my visits abroad, if I choose to visit a famous cathedral, I remove my head covering. I choose to visit the Taj Mahal, I remove my shoes. If it is the Bahai Temple that I choose, I will conform to their religious set of rules. I also believe that I am not alone in this principle and that Jews all over the world act thus.

Then why do Jews from abroad when they come to Jerusalem and choose to visit the Western Wall, why do they not accept and show the same respect for the set of rules in our own religious heritage site, rules that were established and maintained over two thousand years ?

Is it because there are new “modern” Jews who think that the old traditions are “passé,” that they know better, that things must move with the times ? Is that it?

Well, let it be clear – the only reason that these Jews, and indeed all identified Jews in the world today, still identify themselves as Jews is because of the religious strictures that have been maintained for centuries by the traditional “passé” establishment.

I believe that there is not an identified Jew in the world whose great grandfather was not an orthodox practicing Jew or a rabbi.

The converse is also probably true, that there are no 3rd generation Reform Jews, who identify as Jews, and neither will there be. They are “modernizing themselves out of existence.”

So don’t meddle with Jewish history and survival. Pray separately at the Kotel – it doesn’t hurt and in fact it increases concentration and the intensity of our prayers. LAURENCE BECKER Jerusalem