A 104-year-old Holocaust survivor wanted to celebrate her birthday by praying with her descendants at the Western Wall — and 400 people showed up, leading to a massively viral photo, the Algemeiner reported. For her 104th birthday, Shoshana Ovitz had initially asked her eldest granddaughter, Panini Friedman for “a list of all the grandchildren and…
The Holy Land gained one more iota of holiness this past week. In case you missed it, (because, perhaps, you were still catching up on Meghan Markle’s wedding photos), The Duke of Cambridge Prince William visited Israel this week in what became the British Royal Family’s first official stay. Much to our dismay, the regal…
It is Rosh Chodesh Iyar, and over one hundred women have come prepared with Israeli flags and strong singing voices. After a last-minute deliberation, we made the decision to enter the dreaded metal “cage” (the barriers set up for Women of the Wall for the Western Wall Heritage Foundation and police, “quarantining” us on the…
We are appalled and outraged by the events at the Kotel this week, when Reform rabbis and lay leaders were physically attacked by Kotel security guards. The Reform leaders were engaged in an act of civil disobedience to push for implementation of the Kotel agreement, which the Netanyahu government disavowed after months of negotiation. One…
I get the same sense of insolence from Israeli officials when the effects of the cancellation of the Kotel Agreement on World Jewry are discussed. “What will they do to us?” I was forced to spend 24 hours with a 5-year-old who isn’t family. I explained the rules of the house several times during his…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to either reinstate the Western Wall agreement with non-Orthodox groups or explain why it should not force the state to honor the deal. “One can’t help but ask ‘What exactly happened here?’” Chief Justice Miriam Naor said at a hearing Thursday. “There was an agreement,…
It was Wednesday morning of finals week. The thought of waking up at 5:30 AM was not the most thrilling of thoughts; but, Rosh Chodesh aligns with the cycle of the moon, not with the cycle of my school year. I had committed to welcoming in Elul at the Kotel with my Hebrew Union College-Jewish…
Like most of my fellow liberal Jews, I find it deplorable that the Israeli government reneged on a deal for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. I’m also feeling something that others probably aren’t, though: hope for a lesson learned about liberal Judaism’s own walls. What the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate is doing to the liberal…
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