Free the ‘Post’

The editorial “Free the Kotel” (July 18) has proven again that The Jerusalem Post sometimes serves as a mouthpiece for the Reform and their ilk, and as a loudspeaker against religion and orthodoxy.

Unfortunately, the public in Israel is ignorant of the wastelands the Reform Movement leaves in its wake wherever it goes. Just look at the assimilation rate in the US and the point is proved. Looking for new areas to conquer, they find fertile ground in the State of Israel with its naivety and backing by an anti-religious Supreme Court that, under the founding principles of Aaron Barak, decided that whatever they feel is right is the truth for all of humanity and act with haughtiness and aggression in that direction.

The Kotel is just an example. A group of people not believing in God, or in a God that has control over our lives, was rewarded a slice of the Kotel for “egalitarian” prayers. They are not praying to God so to whom are they praying? What is the significance of the Kotel and the Temple Mount to them? (That question may also be asked to countless Israelis who are not being educated in their own history, culture and religion, which is a different point.)

I call upon the powers that be to “Free the Post”

and bring more objectivity back to the written media.

JOSEPH TUCKER

Jerusalem

In his letter of July 19, Barry Newman expressed his opposition to mixed prayer in proximity to the Kotel, stating, “Conduct there should emulate... that which was the norm during the periods in which the Temple was operative.” He assumes that there was no mixed prayer during the Temple times.

However, in his description of the Second Temple in the fifth volume of his work entitled Against Apion, Josephus Flavius describes the ezrat nashim (women’s court) as the area in which men and their wives came together to pray. Josephus Flavius wrote not from hearsay but from his own experience.

Just as during Second Temple times there was a place in the Temple Courts for men and women to pray together, so it should be that in our own times there be a place at the Kotel designated for mixed prayer.

NINA SHEFTMAN Carmiel

Regarding “Orthodox activists disrupt egalitarian section prayers” (July 18), I regard myself a religious Zionist and the actions of the “Religious Zionist” camp besmirch all true religious Zionists. Davka on the very day that we remember that the Second Temple and Jerusalem were destroyed because of baseless hatred, self-styled “Religious Zionists” demonstrated baseless hatred instead of tolerance and love towards their fellow Jews.

I wish to disassociate myself from the so-called “Religious Zionists” and their political ambitions, and hope that all true religious Zionists – and, indeed, the majority of the citizens of the State of Israel and Jews around the world – feel the same way.

IAN BANKS Bet Shemesh