The Israeli Cabinet’s recent decision to not upend the public prayer status quo at the Kotel Maaravi, or Western Wall, was met with howls of outrage from a broad cross-section of non-Orthodox leaders and representatives.
The decision, however, viewed objectively and reasonably (rare perspectives these days, unfortunately, about most everything), was prudent and proper.
When it was liberated by Israel in 1967, the Kotel became a place of peace and Jewish devotion. Anyone who wished to worship there, traditional and nontraditional, Jew and non-Jew alike, did so. Since the great majority of those who flocked to the site over the years were, as remains the case, Orthodox Jews, a mechitza, or separation structure, between men and women was erected; and the standards for public, vocal prayer were in accordance with Jewish religious tradition over millennia. (The Holy Temple that stood on the Temple Mount in ancient times — the source of the Kotel’s holiness — had a mechitza as well, as the Talmud recounts. And women did not serve there as cantors, as Jewish law considers it a breach of modesty for men to hear women singing.)
Those standards were, even if they may not have been the personal ones of all visitors to the Kotel, respected for decades, and the Kotel plaza remained a place of amity — a Jewish societal oasis of sorts, probably the only place on earth where Jews of different religious beliefs prayed side-by-side.
That peace was shattered, and the holy place turned into a place of strife, by a self-described feminist group, led by firebrand Reform activist Anat Hoffman. She has made no secret of her desire to force a change to the status quo, and to import the American model of a multi-winged Judaism to Israel.
As a step toward that end, she organized monthly protests in the guise of prayer services. The response from some haredi hooligans was predictable — anger and attempts to quash the services, where women were chanting — and the feminist group seized upon that ugly reaction by having it captured by the camera crews it made sure to have in tow.
The vast majority of Orthodox Jews at the site did not act on the anguish they felt. But feel it they did.
Anyone, of course, including Ms. Hoffman and her supporters, is entitled to his or her own views. But there are limits, at least among civil people, to what one may do to promote one’s views. And seeking to be in the face of people interested only in the introspection that is Jewish prayer crosses that line.
Those determined to liberalize Jewish practice are free to do what they wish in their own synagogues, and to promote their visions as much as they wish in the media and the public square. But the Kotel, while it is a public place, is not a public square. It is not a place for political or social or religious crusades to be waged.
Ms. Hoffman and her supporters have made clear, moreover, that the current Kotel controversy is only a part of a larger plan to bring American-style religious pluralism to Israel. That goal might sound wonderful to many American Jews; in fact, by creating multiple standards for marriage, divorce and conversion, it would create a multiplicity of Jewish peoples in the Jewish state. That would not be wonderful at all.
In 2004, the Israeli government set aside an area along the Wall to the south for nontraditional prayer. But the activists, with their “pluralism” goal firmly in mind, insist on having their vocal “egalitarian” services more prominently alongside the regular, overwhelmingly Orthodox, visitors to the Kotel, who are deeply pained by attempts to utilize the Kotel to affect social or religious change.
Rather than balkanize the Kotel so that feminist groups today — and, in the future, other groups with their own social agendas — can promote their causes, and “pluralism” proponents can advance theirs, the Kotel should be preserved as a place of Jewish unity, as it has been for half a century. And that means maintaining the Jewish religious standards at the root of all Jews’ histories for public prayer there.
Some can howl with outrage at that suggestion. But, if they are caring Jews, they can choose instead to regard it as reasonable, and thereby help restore peace among all Jews at the Kotel Maaravi.
There’s a part of israel that diaspora jews dont get. Israel is a family. And Jews are a people not a religious group.
Just like we tolerate cousin Moshe dragging out the hagadah so no one gets to eat before the children go to sleep we still go to Aunt Miriam’s Seder cause it’s what we do we look at the more religious not as opponents to be humbled and crushed but as family members and give them their space. Their space among other places is at the kotel. So when we go we pray orthodox style. And the only people complaining are Americans and American olim that want Israel remade to accommodate them.
I get it. I’m an American oleh. In the us being a rabbi and going to synagogue is a big deal. Because that’s all the jewishness that most Jews get.
here being a rabbi is no big deal as most religious men have religious education sufficient to qualify for ordination if they want. Shuls are simply rooms with a ark and a bimah where people recite repetitive prayers. Outside haredi communities rabbi and shuls are no big deal. They’re pretty much all the same.
Judaism, real judaism here happens at home. In the street. At work. At school. We don’t need a giant neon Jewish symbol validating our religious or not religious choices. We have a Jewish country and culture.
It’s why the arrangements at the kotel don’t really matter to us. And we’re okay giving the high ground on this fight to those that show up every day praying there and maintaining it. We live in the reality of Israel. We are the big symbol. Little symbols aren’t that important.
But our ability to make choices about our in culture is.
I’m sorry but Israel is in the middle of much bigger issues than pleasing American tourists on vacation and a tiny group of women that have been whining for decades without gaining one ounce of popular support.
But I guess go ahead American Jews. Threaten and demonize and call names because you aren’t getting your way. Because for the thirty minutes you might spend at the kotel on the off chance you ever visit Israel you might not have the natives cater to your whims and validate your choices.
That’s why you choose to try and blackmail and embarrass Israel?
You wonder why the American left is having a field day going after he’s and Israel? Why your kids get harassed at school and university. Why things like the debacle at the dyke March happened. Why not. It’s not as if the antisemites are doing anything American Jews themselves aren’t doing. How can you respect people that time and time again turn on their own?
If we start behaving like you and fighting over silly symbols we’re dead. Our enemies don’t just say nasty things. They murder our families. Maybe that’s why we ignore you. You guys just don’t get it.
The rabbi’s point is well taken, and I generally agree. I will note, however, that I happened to be davening at the Wall a few weeks ago, when these women showed up. They were obviously there to call attention to themselves and flout tradition; however, the most disturbing thing was the shrieking and whistling of the Haredi women who were protesting the protesters. I think that, if people simply ignored the “Women of the Wall,” they’d probably get tired of their schtick and go home; the shrieking and whistling was far more upsetting than anything else, and only resulted in the Haredi women lowering themselves and the sanctity of the Wall.
they should be ignored. they only want attention. thats why they only show up on rosh chodesh. if they showed up every day, no one would pay them any mind.
In evaluating this self-serving apology for theocratic control of the Jewish State, let’s examine a couple of the unsubstantiated claims, half-truths, and lies found in just the first few sentences.
“the great majority of those who flocked to the site over the years were, as remains the case, Orthodox Jews”.
Citation needed. Perhaps true if you manipulate the data to include repeat visitors. But in any event: so what? If the non-Orthodox, constituting the vast majority of adult Jews in both America and Israel (source: Pew Research, 8 March 2016) do NOT predominate amongst Kotel visitors, perhaps we should be inquiring how we can attract more, rather than concluding that their exclusion is both desirable and unsolvable.
“probably the only place on earth where Jews of different religious beliefs prayed side-by-side”
Interesting: “different religious beliefs”, but not, “different genders”. In any event, I find the bald-faced assertion of this obvious falsehood shocking. Locations in which Jews “of different religious beliefs” study and worship together include virtually every progressive synagogue on Earth, of course. As a closer-to-home example, I offer the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, a truly pluralist bet midrash led substantially by Orthodox teachers in the Orthodox tradition.
“The peace was shattered… [by] Anat Hoffman”
The biggest lie of all. How did Hoffman and her organizations, WOW and IRAC, “shatter the peace”, exactly? See if you can choose the right answer:
(a) By throwing objects at other worshippers
(b) By striking, punching, cursing, and screaming at other worshippers
(c) By davening shacharit, as women, in the segregated–oops, I mean designated–women’s section
If you guessed (c), congratulations! That was a tricky one. Answers (a) and (b) apply not to Hoffman, but to the ultra-Orthodox visitors, who may, or may not, be unaware of the role that sin’at chinam is said to have played in the destruction of the very Temple whose last remaining wall they are disgracing with their behavior.