Israel’s high court suggested in a ruling Wednesday that women have the right to read from the Torah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The court ordered the rabbi of the Western Wall to explain within 30 days why women “should not be allowed to pray in accordance with their custom at the traditional plaza.”…
Men and women who want to pray together at one of the holiest sites in Judaism could have trouble finding the one spot where that is allowed, now that Jerusalem officials removed a sign marking a small egalitarian platform south of the traditional Western Wall. The East Jerusalem Development Authority took down a sign for…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed coalition politics for the delay in implementing a deal reached earlier this year to create a designated prayer section for non-Orthodox worshipers at the Western Wall. “Anti-Semitism is a fringe element in the United States,whether on the right or the left,” said Netanyahu. “I don’t think it…
Jerusalem — Those who know Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu far better than I do said that the real Bibi was on display as he addressed the International Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem Tuesday night. In that case, Netanyahu — the only Israeli elected prime minister three times in a row, the man who says…
Jerusalem — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was the first major elected official to speak at the International Jewish Media Summit, which opened Sunday night in Jerusalem, and he encapsulated the challenge facing his country as it tries to connect more substantively with the Jewish diaspora. The challenge is this: I’m not sure he gets it. Rivlin,…
The women’s section of Jerusalem’s Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, looked a bit like a rugby pitch the morning of December 1 as devout women collapsed into a scrum of long skirts, prayer shawls and repeated shrieks of “Call the police, now!” Some of the women, who call themselves “Women of the Wall”…
JERUSALEM — The Sephardi Orthodox Shas Party has proposed a bill that would prevent any kind of non-Orthodox public prayer at the Western Wall. Under the draft bill, announced by Shas late on Monday, a fine of some $2,500 or a six-month prison sentence would be levied on those taking part in egalitarian prayer services…
JERUSALEM — The head of the Knesset Interior Committee called for the Israeli government to cancel the Western Wall egalitarian prayer agreement, saying “It’s not the end of the world if American Jews get offended.” David Amsalem of the ruling Likud party made the remarks during a committee meeting Tuesday on implementing the deal. Prior…
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