Few American tourists to Israel forget their first visit to the Western Wall. They put notes in the cracks, whisper prayers and take photos against the backdrop of Judaism’s holiest site. But Kobi Bachar of Tel Aviv can’t remember the last time he visited. “I was there maybe 10 years ago,” said Bachar, who is…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly has asked the Jewish Agency to come up with a solution for non-Orthodox women’s groups who want to pray at the Western Wall. Netanyahu asked Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky to examine the issue, the Associated Press reported citing an unnamed Israeli government official. The AP quoted Jewish Agency…
A worshipper at the Western Wall found an envelope with 507 open checks worth about half a billion dollars. The checks, most worth $1 million and originating from countries around the world, were signed but not made out to anybody. The majority of the checks came from Nigeria, according to the Rabbi of the Western…
The Orthodox rabbi who oversees the Western Wall has vowed not to soften his confrontational approach toward Jewish women seeking to pray at the holy site in Jerusalem. On Friday, police detained four women for wearing prayer shawls as they tried to start a prayer service. There have been numerous similar incidents in the past….
Sitting in his office 20 feet above the Western Wall Plaza, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz is unperturbed by the simmering tensions below. For years, Israeli and American Jewish groups have agitated for greater religious freedom at the Wall, which currently allows for only Orthodox worship. Occasionally the outrage boils over. In October, Israeli police arrested Anat…
Six women were detained by Jerusalem police for wearing prayer shawls as more than 100 women gathered for the monthly Women of the Wall service at the Western Wall. The detainments Thursday, on the first day of the Hebrew month Kislev, follow the arrest at last month’s service of Women of the Wall leader Anat…
Calling on the federation system to join synagogues in a fight against religious discrimination in Israel, Reform leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs aimed to engage the broader Jewish community in the struggle for equality of non-Orthodox Jewish denominations in Israel. Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, described Israel as “the only democracy that legally…
The Western Wall is for all Jews, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said even as he blasted women’s protests there as ‘provocations.’ “The Western Wall is the place of prayer for every individual in the nation, and as such, it must carefully safeguard the individual’s right to privacy and respect during the…
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