Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Western Wall prayer deal off
Government backs off mixed-gender section, sparks ire
The Israeli government Sunday scrapped a compromise to allow prayer by men and women together at the Western Wall.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government froze a plan Sunday to open a mixed-gender prayer area at Jerusalem's Western Wall, a major policy reversal that infuriated the liberal streams of Judaism that represent most Jews in the United States.
Israel had approved the plan in January 2016 to officially recognize the special prayer area at the Western Wall — the holiest site where Jews can pray — a compromise reached after years of negotiations between liberal Israeli and American Jewish groups and the Israeli authorities. It was seen as a significant breakthrough in promoting religious pluralism in Israel, where the ultra-Orthodox authorities govern almost every facet of Jewish life.
But the program was never implemented as powerful ultra-Orthodox members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government raised objections to the decision after they had initially endorsed it. Under ultra-Orthodox management, the wall is separated between men's and women's prayer sections.
Netanyahu, trying to placate both his coalition partners and wealthy American Jewish donors, had promised the new $9 million plaza for mixed-gender prayer would be established.
On Sunday, he ordered top aides to formulate a new plan but said little more. In another controversial decision Sunday, his government promoted a bill to maintain the ultraOrthodox monopoly over conversions.
It set off criticism from liberal groups in Israel and abroad.
“I'm outraged by this government decision. I think it shows cowardice. For two years we negotiated in good faith with the government,” said Anat Hoffman, chair of the Women of the Wall group, which has pushed for egalitarian access to the wall. “And then today they decide that it is null and void, that they're not going to implement it, that equality is out the window.”
Earlier in the day, her group held its weekly prayers at the site and was harassed by ultra-Orthodox worshippers.
American Jews have been pushing for the new prayer area and had warned that if the deal did not go through it would lead to a dangerous rupture with North American Jewry.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest stream of Judaism in the United States, said the decision could lead many to rethink their support for Israel. “There is a limit to how many times you can be delegitimized and insulted,” he said.
Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, head of the New Yorkbased Rabbinical Assembly, an association for Conservative movement rabbis, said the decision was not surprising given the clout of ultra-Orthodox parties yet shocking for its divisive message.
“The people of Israel still need our support and our love and the fact that an unbelievably, spectacularly shortsighted government cannot see its way to understand the critical importance of unity of world Jewry is something that is the fault of the politicians,” she said.
The liberal Jewish groups had accused Netanyahu of delaying implementation because of pressure from the two ultraOrthodox parties that keep his narrow coalition afloat. They have already petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to implement the decision and still hold out hope it will overturn it.
Arie Deri, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said he was pleased the government blocked a plan that would have harmed the “sanctity of the site.”