Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

After a month in office, it is time that the new government reapprove the Kotel compromise plan and formally establish an egalitarian plaza at the southern Western Wall. In addition, there is no better time to do it than today, the day that the Jewish people mark the fast of Tisha Beav.The reason this is imperative now is due to a series of recent events that have taken place at the temporary prayer platform at the southern section of the Western Wall, which is meant to be reserved for the use of Masorti (Conservative) and Reform groups.

An organization calling itself the Joint Committee for Preserving the Holiness of the Western Wall gave notice last week that it was starting to conduct a series of prayer services and classes at the platform and had set up a mechitza, or gender separation divider, in opposition to the egalitarian nature of non-Orthodox prayer services that are held there.

Present at the incident was Shlomo Aviner, a far-right rabbi who heads a yeshiva based in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalems Old City.

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While Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai denounced the activities of the activists as baseless hatred, government action is required to safeguard and protect the rights of non-Orthodox Jews to pray at the Western Wall.

A reminder: In January 2016, the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu approved a plan drafted by then-cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit and then-Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky under which the temporary platform would be upgraded and a special government committee would be established to oversee its management. Other parts of the plan included the construction of a new entrance to the main Kotel plaza that would also be for the egalitarian prayer platform.

The plan was never implemented and 18 months later, in June 2017, Netanyahu held a vote to reverse it under pressure from his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.

Since then, the plan has been stuck and as illustrated throughout the past week, it has also been held hostage by right-wing Orthodox political interests.

The government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has declared their desire to repair relations with Diaspora Jewry. One of the first ways to begin that process would be by implementing the plan that would provide a large number of Jews in the United States who belong to the Reform and Conservative movements a respectable place for prayer at one of Judaisms holiest sites.

Doing so, would also show the extremist groups that are trying to take control of the southern section of the Western Wall that they do not have a monopoly over Judaism and Jewish life in Israel and that every Jew deserves to have a place to pray the way they want at the Kotel.

What Aviner and his followers did was try and create division among the Jewish people. They are trying to ostracize a significant portion of Jews who live in the Diaspora and to create a single form of Judaism that belongs only to them and those people who practice religion the way they do and the way they say it should be observed.

This government has a unique opportunity to set things straight and recalibrate the way religion is meant to be observed within a democracy like Israel strives to be. There are no haredi parties within this government and based on recent comments made by members of Shas and UTJ, they will not be joining soon.

This provides the Bennett-Lapid government with the opportunity to create a new equilibrium between religion and state in Israel. Now is the time and there is no better way to start than by creating equality at the Kotel, one of the most powerful symbols for the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

See the original post here:

Fixing relations with the diaspora requires saving the Kotel - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Diaspora
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