Ultra-Orthodox, Reformist Jews clash over prayer space at Western Wall
Progressive Judaism activists from Israel and the US are demanding Prime Minister Naftali Bennett implement the compromise on an egalitarian mixed-prayer space by the Western Wall, as was agreed under the former government.
Verbal clashes broke out this morning at the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem's Old City, when activists of the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements and of the Women Of the Wall group arrived at the site, celebrating the new Hebrew month of Adar B. Facing them were thousands of ultra-Orthodox young men and women, there for the same purpose — and also to protest the activists.
The ultra-Orthodox were especially vexed to see Knesset member Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi, entering the site with a Torah scroll. The Western Wall Heritage Foundation requires worshipers to use the scrolls at the site, but it does not allow Women of the Wall activists to pray with them. As a Knesset member, Kariv said he had immunity to bring his own scroll in. After the clashes, Kariv said he intends to submit a complaint by the police, as some ultra-Orthodox youngsters told him in a veiled warning, ‘’Be careful, [assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin looks for a friend.’’
For several years now, progressive Jews from Israel and the US have been demanding permission to pray by the Western Wall according to their own traditions in an egalitarian gender-mixed space. Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a compromise was announced in 2016 for an egalitarian space on the southern side of the Western Wall, accessible from the main gate of the plaza, and to be managed by a council of progressive Judaism representatives.
Netanyahu’s government backtracked from the compromise in 2017, under pressure from ultra-Orthodox parties, who were at the time part of the governing coalition. The issue has since been back and forth on Israel’s political agenda. An egalitarian space has been established, but smaller than expected, without the large entrance and without the managing council. When the new government was formed last year without the ultra-Orthodox parties, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had a Knesset majority, at least on paper, to pass the Western Wall compromise. Still, Bennett (himself Orthodox) was reluctant to enter into conflict with the ultra-Orthodox parties.
