As we prepared this piece for submission, Israelis were repeatedly forced to seek shelter, while gunmen attacked Jews in both Israel and the United States. We pray for all of our safety.
We also find it particularly distressing to discuss attacks upon the layout and usage of the Western Wall prayer area, which was recently closed due to missile threats, at this time. Yet even with Israel at war, American Reform leaders and allies are delivering speeches and interviews warning of “radicals” in Israel who wish to uphold traditional practice at the Western Wall. At a moment when Israel faces immediate and existential danger, this is more than a needless distraction.
Efforts to alter the character of the Kotel rest upon the false premise that there are millions of Jews, primarily in the Diaspora, whose support for Israel will wane if longstanding Jewish tradition is not abandoned. But portraying sincere Jewish religious expression as hostile to Israel’s future perfectly inverts reality. Right now, we need more prayer, not challenges to Jewish tradition outlining how prayer is appropriately done.
The Western Wall is not a civic square or public park. It is the last accessible remnant of the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) and the spiritual center of Jewish memory for nearly two millennia. Ever since Israel gained control of the site in 1967, restoring religious freedom to Jews and all others, prayer arrangements at the wall have been conducted according to halachic (Jewish legal) practice.
How this came to be, and why there is a dignified and welcoming plaza there at all, is no mystery. Construction was not driven by political horse trading in the Knesset, nor was the plaza the brainchild of a functionary in the Religious Services Ministry. People voted with their feet, coming to pray there every day, rain or shine, throughout the year – and the space was built to serve them.
No matter how meaningful other uses may be, the primary purpose of the Western Wall site is not to be an archaeological garden or a place to swear in new IDF soldiers, but to be a sanctuary for heartfelt prayer and devotion.
This framework has been maintained by Israeli governments of the Left, the Center, and the Right. And thus, the Knesset initiatives under discussion do not introduce a new religious order at the wall. Neither do they submit the plaza to extreme or arbitrary standards, as Reform leaders claim. And to portray them as a plan to imprison Jews for prayer, as some have done, is simply beyond the pale of rational discourse. To the contrary, the proposed legislation responds to threats by progressive activists against the very things that make the Western Wall plaza appealing to those anxious to pray there.
It is hardly a secret that Women of the Wall and its American financiers never intended to add to the sanctity of the place. Its leaders openly declared their intent to disrupt the prayers of others, and they bring “a folding table and a megaphone,” not to mention a media entourage, to their every “service.” There is no natural, organic support for their operation; it is not spiritual, but political.
The claim that “millions” are being disenfranchised is thus one that obfuscates rather than clarifies. Jewish life today is extraordinarily diverse, and no movement can credibly claim to speak for the entire Jewish people. But there are no millions occupying seats in today’s Reform and Conservative congregations even on the High Holy Days, much less on a daily or weekly basis. And it is obvious that Jews who rarely engage in Jewish prayer in their home towns are not deeply troubled by how prayers are conducted by Jews in Israel.
Furthermore, the current division of the Western Wall is nearly sixty years old, and was preceded by another eighteen years during which no Jew was permitted to pray there. Given that most living Jews never experienced anything different, it is specious at best to assert that prayer practices at the wall might explain why younger Jews are joining anti-Israel rallies. Most of them have never set foot in Israel, and could not point to the Western Wall on a map.
There is, of course, one segment of the Jewish community that has only increased its attachment to Israel, and this is reflected in the current composition of the World Zionist Congress, despite entire segments of the Orthodox and Hasidic communities who would not vote in its elections, yet pray at the Western Wall frequently.
For many years, Reform and Conservative leaders, in alliance with left-wing Israeli parties, exercised dominant influence within Zionist institutions. Today, this has been reversed, despite deliberate attempts to minimize the Orthodox vote. Israel would be ill-advised to take steps that only offend the sensibilities and religious precepts of its most ardent supporters.
A site of unmatched holiness should not be subject to political maneuvering, especially at a time when prayers are so clearly needed. The administration of the Western Wall should remain responsive to public demand. This is determined by foot traffic, not PR statements. And the consistent, ongoing disuse of the Ezrat Yisrael section, the “Egalitarian Kotel” created by then-Religious Affairs minister Naftali Bennett in 2013, offers silent testimony (pun intended) to the utter lack of interest in change.
The Kotel carries profound meaning for Jews of every background. That shared attachment should encourage thoughtful and honest debate. Instead, increasingly dramatic claims portray policy disagreements as existential threats and preservation of halachic norms as religious persecution.
The Jewish people have always been capable of serious disagreement about sacred space. But those disagreements should be conducted with accuracy, proportion, and respect for the democratic and institutional frameworks through which decisions about Israel’s most sacred national sites are made – especially at a moment when Israel faces grave external threats, and the Jewish world seeks unity and clarity.
Rabbi Yaakov Menken is Executive Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values.
Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag serves as Chairman of the Coalition for Jewish Values of the United Kingdom, and represents Eretz HaKodesh UK in the World Zionist Congress.