Jerusalem – The State Attorney’s Office informed the Israeli Supreme Court on Tuesday, that preparatory work will commence at Robinson’s Arch by the end of August in an effort to establish an egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall.
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The statement was made as legal proceedings filed by several organizations, including Women of the Wall (WoW), continue against the Israeli government at the Supreme Court. The court was petitioned to issue a ruling that would grant equal worshiping rights at the Western Wall to women and members of non-Orthodox Jewish streams.
“In an ideal Israel, we would have never had to do any of this because women would have full rights in the women’s section and there would be no coercion by one denomination over another,” WoW Director of Public Relations Shira Pruce told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).
Women of the Wall is an organization of women from all Jewish denominations that has been fighting since 1988 for the right to conduct egalitarian prayer services at the Western Wall. WoW is joined by organizations such as the Conservative Movement in Israel, Kolech – the Forum of Religious Women, Hiddush – the Organization for Religious Freedom and Equality, and the Center for Reform Judaism.
The Western Wall compound is currently under the full jurisdiction of the Israeli chief rabbinate, which is an exclusively Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox state institution. The rabbinate has consistently denied freedom of worship at the Western Wall to non-Orthodox religious streams, such as the Reform and Conservative Movements, and it has prevented women from having equal prayer rights, such as reading the Torah and wearing Jewish prayer shawls at the Western Wall plaza.
Following an agreement between government representatives and those of the various organizations, the government decided in February to expand the Western Wall and to establish an egalitarian section open to all streams and denominations of Judaism as well. The plan had been to expand the section at Robinson’s Arch and to have visitors enter through the main entrance rather than the side entrance which they currently have to use.
“The agreement states that Women of the Wall will not leave the women’s section until the new section is completed in its entirety,” Pruce told TPS. “If and when we move there, it will be to a completed prayer section that is ready for a group such as ours.”
The move caused a storm of controversy, and several groups came out against it. Orthodox Jewish politicians and religious leaders opposed it, as they claimed that it granted legitimacy to Reform Judaism. The Muslim Waqf, which controls the Temple Mount, contended that it would lead to a Jewish takeover of the Temple Mount, and the Antiques Authority bemoaned the potential damage the refurbishment might cause to the archaeological relics at the site.
The opposition to the plan had caused it to languish for months, at which point the suit was filed with the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs alleged that despite the government’s decision and despite another Supreme Court ruling from April which guaranteed women and other Jewish denominations equal prayer rights, the government had failed to comply with both its own decision and with that of the Supreme Court.
The state announced on Monday that work on the preservation of the archaeological relics at the site would commence in August before the expansion of the actual Robinson Arch plaza. The statement made by the government to the court today was the first sign of progress since the signing of the agreement. However, according to the State Attorney’s Office, these “preservation works will take at least a year before actual construction starts.”
“It is extremely problematic to give the Reform Movement any part of the Western Wall,” insisted Yehuda Wall, a spokesman for the Liba Center, which advocates for the exclusive perpetuation of Orthodox Jewish identity in Israel,The Western Wall is holy. It does not matter if it is Robinson’s Arch or the plaza at which everyone prays and it is forbidden to give them any part of it.”
“The entire agreement is a bit of a political manipulation by the prime minister in order to quell the criticism by the strong and influential non-Orthodox Jewish community in America and to distract them,” Rabbi Uri Regev, the former president of World Union for Progressive Judaism and the CEO of Hiddush, told TPS. “The agreement promises to place Reform and Conservative Jews and women at a portion of the Wall that’s not even under the rabbinate’s jurisdiction, cementing the rabbinate’s control of the public site while knowing full well that political and archeological opposition to the plan will postpone its execution indefinitely.”