It is growing increasingly likely that a solution for egalitarian and
non-Orthodox prayer will not conform to the demands of the Women of the Wall
activist group, the main driver behind the campaign for equal prayer rights at
the Western Wall.
The Jerusalem Post understands that a solution that is
being drawn up by a committee headed by cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit
will fall short of what the group has requested.
Specifically, it is
understood that the area set aside at the Robinson’s Arch section for the Women
of the Wall and non- Orthodox prayer will not be raised to the same height as
the rest of the Western Wall Plaza, and will not afford sufficient access to the
stones of the wall itself.
Women of the Wall has explicitly stated that
any prayer area built to accommodate its needs must be a homogeneous part of the
Western Wall Plaza to secure its agreement.
On Sunday, the Jerusalem and
Diaspora Affairs Ministry – headed by Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett, who
serves as the religious services minister – announced the completion of what it
called an “interim solution” for those wishing to hold egalitarian and
pluralistic prayer services at the Western Wall.
The ministry, in coordination
with the Prime Minister’s Office and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, has
constructed a large platform of approximately 450 square meters at the
Robinson’s Arch area to serve as the
site for non-Orthodox prayer, but stressed
it was intended as “a temporary solution to enable prayer services during the
upcoming high holiday season.”
In a statement to the press, the ministry
said that the site, to be called “Ezrat Yisrael,” will be open free of charge,
24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can accommodate up to 450 worshipers.
Prayer books, Torah scrolls and prayer shawls will be made available.
But
the Women of the Wall organization held a press conference on Sunday afternoon
adjacent to the new prayer platform and called for a boycott of the site,
claiming that it amounted to support from Bennett for the terms of Mandelblit’s
proposals, and was an attempt to cast the group “out of sight and out of mind,”
and to silence its claims for equal prayer rights.
The group further said
that Bennett’s solution was not intended to be temporary and that Mandelblit’s
solution would not differ substantially from the newly created prayer
platform.
Several members of WoW began a 24-hour sit-in at the Western
Wall Plaza on Sunday night in protest of the suspected proposals for the
arrangement.
“The stage is in no way equal topographically or
geographically to the original plaza, nor does it come close to the [Western]
Wall itself, as it stands to the back of the Robinson’s Arch area,” the group
said, adding that since the prayer area does not have a gender separation
barrier it is inappropriate for WoW since it is a women’sonly prayer
group.
“Women of the Wall rejects the Mandelblit plan which dangerously
circumvents the pluralist Sobel district court decision,” said WoW in a
statement to the press, referring to a Jerusalem District Court decision in
April providing for equal prayer rights for women praying in a non-traditional
fashion at the Western Wall Plaza.
“We are at a crossroads for religious
freedom and freedom of expression in Israel. Today this affects Women of the
Wall, but tomorrow it will affect every Israeli and Jew around the
world.
What has been proven today is that the bullies were victorious –
with their assault, spitting and cursing at women. Mandelblit and Bennett have
given in to the threats and violence of the haredi extremist minority in Israel
and this is a dangerous precedent for our democracy.”
WoW chairwoman Anat
Hoffman made a direct plea to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni to reject
Mandelblit’s plan.
In addition, Hoffman criticized Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu for marginalizing proposals made by Sharansky for a solution
for non-Orthodox prayer at the Western Wall.
Although WoW expressed
reservations about the Sharansky plan when it was first publicized several
months ago, the group said that in general the proposals were a positive
development.
Hoffman alleged on Sunday that the prime minister dispensed
with Sharansky’s proposal for political reasons and appointed Mandelblit’s
committee to circumvent it.
Sharansky issued a statement to the press
praising Bennett for his efforts.
“This temporary prayer plaza is a
gesture of goodwill on behalf of Minister Bennett toward Judaism’s religious
streams,” Sharansky said, and added that he hoped it would help improve the
feelings and relations between the government, the various Jewish denominations
and the Jewish Agency in order to reach a permanent arrangement at the
site.
Bennett’s office said in response to the criticism from Women of
the Wall that the solution was a “compromise aimed at unifying the Jewish people
to enable all Jews from all walks of life to pray freely at the
Kotel.
“This plaza was constructed as a primary prayer site for
pluralistic, progressive and egalitarian prayer services, and was built for
millions of Jews around the world who deserve a respectable place to pray at one
of Judaism’s holiest sites,” an official in Bennett’s office told the
Post.
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a media statement saying “The
committee appointed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to examine the issue
has yet to finish its work. When it does, its recommendations will be submitted
to the prime minister.”
The Reform Movement in Israel expressed concern
with the emerging details of Mandelblit’s plan.
“On the face of things,
it seems that there are substantial differences between the apparent
recommendations of the committee headed by the cabinet secretary and the plan of
Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky which garnered wide support in Israel and
the Diaspora,” said Rabbi Gilad Kariv, director of the Reform Movement in
Israel.
“The Reform Movement will wait for clarifications, but in any
eventuality we will insist that the egalitarian prayer area will be an
inseparable part of the state and national site of the Western Wall, and on the
presentation of a clear timetable for the implementation of the Sharansky
proposals in full.”
Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of
the Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, said that although serious
questions remained to be answered regarding the final government proposals for
non- Orthodox prayer at the Western Wall, the fact that the Robinson’s Arch area
had been improved as a place of prayer was a positive step, describing the
upgraded site and prayer amenities as a “dramatic improvement.”
Schonfeld
noted that the Conservative Movement has been conducting prayer services at
Robinson’s Arch for the past 12 years and said that approximately 20,000 people
had prayed at the site in Conservative services over the past year
alone.
She said, however, that issues such as having one entrance to the
entire Western Wall Plaza with direct access to the non- Orthodox section would
have to be clarified before the movement could fully formulate its
approach.
“The Conservative Movement has been seeking equality for
non-Orthodox denominations at the Western Wall for a long time and this is still
the goal,” Schonfeld told the Post. “And the situation at the Western Wall is a
symptom of the larger struggle for religious equality in Israel which we will
continue to work toward.”