Jewish Federations Back Western Wall Compromise as Clashes Loom
Image by getty images
The Jewish Federations of North America’s board of trustees passed a resolution supporting Natan Sharansky’s proposed compromise on egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.
Monday’s resolution, according to a JFNA statement, says the compromise “develops a pathway whereby the Kotel will once again become a spiritual center for all Jews and a symbol of unity for the entire Jewish community world-wide.”
Announced in April, the proposal would expand and raise the area adjacent to the current Western Wall Plaza known as Robinson’s Arch and create a unified entrance for both sections. Robinson’s Arch has been used as a prayer space by non-Orthodox groups for about a decade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, to formulate a plan in December that would satisfy haredi Orthodox leaders who wanted to maintain exclusive control of the site and religious pluralism activists who wanted it opened to egalitarian prayer.
“By issuing this resolution, the Jewish Federations are giving voice to the strong desire across our community to resolve this critical issue and ensure that all Jews can experience the most spiritually powerful place in Judaism,” JFNA President and CEO Jerry Silverman said in the statement.
Sharansky’s plan, which was greeted at first with some enthusiasm by both sides of the debate, has lost support recently from both sides.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
