I could never have imagined that I would find something missing in the Western Wall, that epic monument to Jewish suffering and collective memory that I have been visiting for decades.
A month ago the board of Women of the Wall, leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements in North America and Israel announced that they had reached an agreement with the Israeli government that would for the first time give official recognition of these non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.
On the morning of Dec. 1, 1988, a group of about 70 Jewish women entered the sacred space of the Western Wall.
The Robinson’s Arch plaza at the Western Wall will come under the control of a future government-appointed pluralist council.\n
This week has seen a fair bit of news on the heretofore confidential negotiations surrounding the future of Robinson’s Arch, the area of the Western Wall open to non-Orthodox prayer.
Leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements expressed concern over reports that the Israeli government agreed to put a right-wing organization in charge of the Robinson’s Arch area of the Western Wall.
Israeli Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit intends to block a draft agreement that would transfer control of parts of the Western Wall to a right-wing Israeli nonprofit.
The key dispute in the recent feud between Women of the Wall and some of the group’s founders is whether Robinson’s Arch — an area adjacent to the Kotel plaza meant for egalitarian prayer — counts as the Western Wall.
Ten longtime members of Women of the Wall are protesting the organization’s recent decision to meet at the Robinson’s Arch area next to the Western Wall Plaza.
The Jewish Federations of North America’s board of trustees passed a resolution supporting Natan Sharansky’s proposed compromise on egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.
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