Reena Bromberg Gaber
While walking into the Kotel, the northern section with a grand entrance and open space, what most people think of when they think about the Kotel, there is a second option. Just a stone’s throw away from the large gates, there is a much smaller entrance to the section next to the southern part of the Western Wall. It has a little sign, a security shack, and many stairs. This is the entrance to Ezrat Yisrael, the egalitarian Kotel.
As the northern plaza of the Kotel is set up with a mechitza down the middle to separate men and women, non-Orthodox Jews, specifically women, are prevented from praying the way they choose. Run by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Kotel is operated as an Orthodox prayer space; strict levels of modesty are upheld and women are not allowed to read from a Torah scroll or pray out loud.
Until around the last decade, most Israelis would say that “the synagogue I do not attend is Orthodox,” according to the Jewish People Policy Institute, that although many Israelis were not observant, they still identified with an Orthodox community. Of the 6.5 million Israeli Jews, two-thirds identify with some form of Traditional or Religious Judaism, according to a 2017 JPPI Survey. However, the Reform and Conservative movements are growing bigger and the synagogues Israelis “do not attend” are beginning to include non-Orthodox synagogues as well.
Even while non-Orthodox groups are growing, the religious aspects of Israeli life are still controlled by the Rabbinate and its Orthodox rabbis. The Kotel is the holiest site for Jews for prayer but has also been used as a national site, a backdrop for official ceremonies like on Yom HaZikaron. The Kotel is a symbol of Jewish life and has also come to house Israeli pride as a national monument. Although a place for all Israelis and Jews, regardless of religious affiliation, the Kotel exemplifies the disparities in how sects of Judaism exist in Israel; non-Orthodox communities beg for recognition and equality from Orthodox communities that hold the authority.
The “monopoly,” what Anat Hoffman calls the Orthodox hold over the Kotel, prevents Jews like Hoffman from praying at the Kotel they way they choose. Hoffman is the head of Nashot HaKotel—Women of the Wall—the non-Orthodox women’s group working for the right to pray aloud, read from Torah scrolls, and wear tefillin at the Kotel, by holding monthly Rosh Chodesh services in the women’s section. Having been arrested multiple times for wearing a tallit at the Kotel, Hoffman experienced the discrimination there first-hand. Non-Orthodox Jews who want to pray in the holiest space for Jews are prevented from doing so because of their identities.
“That’s unacceptable to a lot of Israelis, even unacceptable to a lot of Modern Orthodox Israelis,” Rabbi Andy Sacks said, echoing Hoffman’s experiences with these inequalities. Rabbi Sacks is the director of the Rabbinical Assembly—organization of Masorti and Conservative rabbis—in Israel and the Bureau of Religious Affairs for the Masorti Movement, so has been involved with the issues at the Kotel for years.
In 2013, Leah Zakh Aharoni wrote a Times of Israel blog article explaining her opposition to Nashot HaKotel, rejecting specifically the “victim mentality” that she felt was being projected onto her. After her inbox was flooded with responses, Aharoni founded Nashot L’maan HaKotel—Women for the Wall—to give a voice to women who want the women’s section to remain unaltered. The organization also gathers for Rosh Chodesh services, bringing up to 15,000 women to pray together at the Kotel, however they are not the women who directly interact with the services held by Nashot HaKotel. Nonetheless, Aharoni finds it abhorrent that the Nashot HaKotel Rosh Chodesh services use the time as a way to gain political ground.
“That’s the question that I would like to ask: is the Kotel, the holiest place, the most unifying place for the Jewish people, the right place to create a political campaign and a media campaign for political objectives?” she asked.
Aharoni sees the part of the Western Wall in Ezrat Yisrael to be just as holy as the plaza with the mechitza, even recognizing that there are parts of the Kotel experience that can be more keenly felt in Ezrat Yisrael. Although she typically goes to the women’s section, a quieter, calmer experience can be felt at Ezrat Yisrael. Aharoni wondered why then, does Ezrat Yisrael not get used more, if not for political gain. She explained that non-Orthodox groups have a space to hold egalitarian services but still cause drama in the Kotel area, instead of holding their own services in the space meant for them.
Although Nashot HaKotel have changed their rhetoric in the last decade, at one point they likened being relegated to Robinson’s Arch to sitting in the back of the bus. As their opinions began evolving, one woman wrote in a Nashot HaKotel blog post, “the northern Kotel is flawed in its holiness. The Kotel today ostracizes the honest and authentic prayers of women who wish to pray together. A place that is not equal is not holy to me,” but added, “[Ezrat Yisrael] will be holy because of all the future prayers that will be said there.”
Even so, Nashot HaKotel’s fundamental mission is to pray in the women’s section and Robinson’s Arch would be an illegitimate concession. Having seen changes to the make-up of the prayer space, it still shows that this circumstance, even though it is separate, is not equal. The area lacks the basic infrastructure; it is smaller, the platform is temporary, the entrance is hidden, and the lack of accessibility could still prevent a Jew in a wheelchair from praying there. Rabbi Sacks shared that two years after a stone fell out of the wall in Ezrat Yisrael, the platform that hugs the Wall has not been fixed, preventing anyone from touching the stones of the Wall.
“The power and the money to fix it is in the hands of people who don’t care about us. There is no other good explanation,” Rabbi Sacks determined.
In the newest installment in a series of legal battles, the High Court of Justice reprimanded the government for dragging its feet, in terms of renovations at Ezrat Yisrael and the appointment of an administrator for the area not under the authority of the Chief Rabbinate. By April 4, 2021, the state must explain the steps it has taken to upgrade the area and must appoint an administrator, according to a court order.
“On a practical level, what I would like to see, and I think we will see, is the large wooden platform will be replaced by something permanent and more aesthetic. That there will be handicap access,” he detailed. “That the government will allow it to operate very much as the Kotel operates. And not only do I think that’s a reasonable thing, I hesitate to make predictions in this country, but I think it actually will happen at some point.”
The landmark 2017 Kotel Compromise, although now frozen, was originally brought to the negotiating table in order to make an egalitarian prayer space that matched the northern Kotel plaza in grandiose. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Natan Sharansky, head of the Jewish Agency at the time, to create a compromise that would satisfy both the Orthodox and the non-Orthodox. What became the Kotel Compromise from the Sharansky plan promised improved infrastructure at Ezrat Yisrael, in addition to improved access and signage. Both sides came to a consensus until the general public found out and Haredi communities put pressure on Netanyahu’s coalition to pull out.
However, “it was the first time everthat the government officially recognized, negotiated with, and signed an agreement with the Reform and Conservative Movements,” Rabbi Sacks added.
“It was a commitment to equal recognition of the multitude of expressions in Israeli and worldwide Jewish life,” Hoffman wrote in a blog article.
Yoni Kaplan, Hebrew University professor of Jewish History and Issues in Israeli Society, explained that “the fight is going on as to who is, or what is the legitimate way of expressing Judaism.”
This fight over legitimacy at the Kotel is a sliver of the fight over the legitimacy of the sects of Judaism in Israel as a whole. The Reform and Conservative Movements are gaining members in Israel, now 12-13 percent, up from 7 percent five years before, according to the JPPI 2017 survey. While the Reform and Conservative Movements are growing in Israel, their representation in the Israeli government has remained unchanged. For example, marriages or conversions recognized by the State of Israel must still be performed under the Chief Rabbinate.
As Israeli Judaism is directed and controlled by Orthodox rabbis, there is no space left for Jews who do not practice under the auspices of Orthodox Judaism. Although non-Orthodox Jews have Ezrat Yisrael to pray in a non-Orthodox way at the Kotel, it is by no means equal to the space that Orthodox Jews have. And although non-Orthodox Jews have synagogues and organizations, they are by no means equal to Orthodox Jews.
Rabbi Sacks explained a conversation that has always happened in Israel: should there be separation of religion and state. Israeli society diverges over whether or not religion or democracy should take precedence, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey; a vast majority of Haredi Jews prefer religion over democracy, the majority of Secular Jews prefer democracy over religion, and Traditional or Religious Jews split more evenly between the two.
For Rabbi Sacks, the conversation should not be about separation of religion and state but about separation of religion and politics. No one discusses if the government should fund meat and dairy soup kitchens however the Kotel Compromise was frozen over political tensions, not over any religious or theological reason.
“I think a very basic principle of democracy is that it’s a rule of the majority that understands the needs of the minority and the minority needs to understand that it’s a minority,” Aharoni says.
She believes that when Nashot HaKotel disrupts the sanctity of the Kotel, the minority is imposing on a majority that has given over concessions, like allowing for an egalitarian space at Robinson’s Arch.
Somehow the Israeli democracy must come to a consensus as to how the sects of Judaism can come together, but, Kaplan explained, “when we talk in Israel about Jewish consensus, it means the non-Orthodox giving into the Orthodox or Ultra-Orthodox in some fashion.”
Hoffman sees the future of the discourse between the sects more extremely. She sees a future with not a Rabbinate but a Ministry of Religious Affairs that is more tolerant and egalitarian, without the Orthodoxy’s monopolization over Jewish life.
In all aspects of life, non-Orthodox Jews are fighting for more equalities. In 2015, Ultra-Orthodox schools were funded for at least ten more hours per week than regular schools. As of now, all marriages must be performed under the authority of the Chief Rabbinate and the process follows strict Jewish laws of marriage. Although conversions no longer need to be completed under the Chief Rabbinate, they must be completed by Orthodox rabbis. Similarly, Orthodox communities hold a monopoly over who can obtain kashrut certificates, the certificate in-line with Jewish dietary laws. Non-Orthodox groups frequently take the government to court over these situations and just as they are working for more equalities throughout life, they are working towards more equalities at the Kotel.
Aharoni wants non-Orthodox Jews to have a space at the Kotel the way they choose but she wants their prayer to be conducted in Ezrat Yisrael, where she says they are supposed to be. She wants prayer at the Kotel to be preserved the way she perceives it has been, with separated prayer, for hundreds of years. However, although prayer has been conducted for centuries at the Western Wall, an official mechitza was not introduced until the early 20th Century.
Rabbi Sacks is “long-term optimistic, short-term frustrated,” about the future of egalitarian prayer at the wall. He wants to see an egalitarian section that is just as available and grandiose as the northern plaza.
Although Rabbi Sacks does not see the Kotel Compromise to still be a realistic option, he does see parts of it coming to fruition over time. As April 4, 2021 comes, small parts of the Kotel Compromise may come to reality with new Ezrat Yisrael administrators, but larger moves may take more time. What the Israeli government does in April, will point to what the future will be at the Kotel, and could be an indicator of the situation in the country as a whole.
>>This was written for Reporting Armed Conflict in the Middle East, a course taught at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, fall 2020. The seminar based course focused on objectives, methods, and consequences of media involvement in armed conflicts. Reported on conflicts, both social and political, in Israel. Articles included reporting on political unrest and protests, religious conflicts, and relations with Gaza.
