Brilio.net/en - Jewish feminists and all-around progressives around the world rejoice! Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israeli Cabinet reached a decision that will allow for mixed-gender ceremonies and non-Orthodox Jews on the holy site of the Western Wall. Known as the Kotel in Hebrew, it is one of the holiest sites in the Jewish religion, and is viewed as symbol of Jewish unity. The wall surrounds Temple Mount, which is the location of one of the three holiest sites in Islam, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray. The decision comes after decades of quarrelling between the Orthodox authorities who control most of religious life in Israel and the more diverse and liberal communities abroad.
"Today the government of Israel recognized the diversity of Judaism around the world and partnered with us to co-create a space where all can pray at Judaism's most holy site," said Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which has been lobbying for a shared prayer space for more than two decades.
The prayer space will be completed in within the next 18 months, and will be situated along the southern edge of the Western Wall, where there is currently a makeshift site for informal prayer that was erected in 2000. According to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism estimated that in 2015 50,000 people attended prayers at the makeshift site while more than 3 million visited the Western Wall in 2013.
The decision comes after the efforts of a feminist advocacy group Women of the Wall, who have been petitioning for 27 years to achieve equal prayer rights for women, such as wearing the yarmulke and prayer shawls which are normally reserved for men. Traditionally, Orthodox Jews oppose men and women praying together because they believe it goes against Jewish law, known as Halakha.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation took a more tradition stance and disapproved the Cabinet decision. "Following a media campaign by a small but inflammatory group called Women of the Wall, the Wall has gone from a being a place of unity to an arena of constant scuffling. The blasphemy that this group and its supporters have perpetrated is so horrendous that it will take years to fix. We must do everything to leave this horrible affair behind us."
Hopefully, his opinion is that of the minority. The egalitarian prayer space is a historic decision that will begin the process of adapting religion to 21st century standards.
(Reported by: Ivana Lucic)
(brl/tis)
