Alt-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos staged a photo-shoot for social media this week in which he put a letter in a mock Western Wall, asking for “speedy deportations.” The 33 year-old who has said of sexual relationships between 13 year-olds and adults, “these things do happen, perfectly consensually,” wore a kippah emblazoned with the acronym “ICE,”…
American ultra-Orthodox leaders traveled to Israel this week to tell Israeli officials to ignore liberal American Jews’ demands to allow women to pray at the Western Wall. In statements and documents announcing the trip, the ultra-Orthodox leaders attacked non-Orthodox Jewish groups, saying that while ultra-Orthodoxy is growing, non-Orthodox Jewish movements are “dying,” and that acceding…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Construction has begun to upgrade the section set aside for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. Workers reportedly arrived at the site on Thursday and began erecting scaffolding at the southern end of the Western Wall. The work, which has a budget of more than $7 million, comes more than a year…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The rabbi of the Western Wall sent a letter of apology to the editor of the Israeli business daily Globes for the discriminatory treatment of one of its reporters during Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the site last week. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, writing to Globes editor-in-chief Naama Sikuler, said “I want…
Female reporters reacted with frustration on Tuesday after they were fenced behind their male counterparts while covering Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The press pool, set up on a raised platform overlooking the Western Wall and the stone square in front of it, was divided in half: Male reporters,…
The Israeli Supreme Court indicated on Sunday that it would not force the government to implement the full plan it had approved and later suspended for an egalitarian prayer space at Jerusalem’s Western Wall – provided that it moved ahead with certain elements of it. Attorneys representing the state notified the court that the government…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration said it cannot envision an outcome in which the Western Wall is not part of Israel — the first signal by any U.S. administration that it recognizes a claim to Jerusalem outside the 1967 lines. Senior administration officials briefing reporters on Friday about Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to…
A familiar scene played out in front of the Western Wall recently. Leaders of the Reform movement from both the United States and Israel along with members of Women of the Wall attempted to pray and bring Torahs to the Wall. They were forcibly stopped and subjected to violence by guards hired by the Orthodox…
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