02/27/2026
For many years, I loved going to sit in the back of the Kotel (Western or Wailing Wall) plaza. I found peace and a sense of awe watching people from all over the world come to stand on sacred space. Over the years, however, the women’s side seemed to get smaller and the mehitza (partition) to the kotel, taller. Rather than appreciating the Kotel’s sanctity, I felt an overwhelming sense of obstacle and division. I began to understand the Rabbinic texts from almost 2,000 years ago about the destruction of the Temple due to senseless hatred as incredibly relevant and timely. In 2016 an agreement was reached to establish an egalitarian prayer area, known as Ezrat Israel, under the explicit management of the Masorti Movement and its partners.
In 2018 I was part of a delegation of rabbis from across North America—Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox, to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Foreign Ministry about the growing gap of Liberal Jews in North America and Israel. Our conversations often revolved around the unfulfilled promises of the Ezrat Israel—an expanded and fully accessible plaza that extends to the Kotel itself. Repeatedly, we heard that the government feared pouring money into the project and no one coming to use it. I made my own promise, one that has been fulfilled more reliably than the Israeli government’s own, that each time I come to Israel, I would visit the Egalitarian section of the Kotel. Each time I enter the gate, I feel like I represent the majority of Jews in the world, simply by being there. I realize that this statement, being counted, is much larger than the issue of the Kotel or Conservative Judaism, it is about being recognized as a Jew in our ancestral homeland.
Once again, and outrageously, as if we don’t have bigger issues like Iran to worry about, lawmakers in Israel voted 56-47 this week in favour of a preliminary reading of a bill giving the Chief Rabbinate full control over prayer at all parts of the Kotel. Rather than move forward with the promised upgrades to the egalitarian plaza, the far-right MK, Avi Maoz, sponsored a bill to undermine the entire process and give the country’s two chief rabbis (both Orthodox) ultimate authority over Jewish holy sites, including the Ezrat Israel plaza. It would define any activity at the site contrary to their instructions, such as non-Orthodox worship, as a “desecration” and carry with it a penalty of 7 years in prison.
On a side note, yet tangentially related, Tammy Gottlieb who spoke at Beth Tikvah about the World Zionist Organization earlier this year, was arrested last week for wanting to participate in services that included Torah reading for women in the women’s section in honour of Rosh Chodesh. I share this to say, that the threat of the bill is real and pertains to more than this section of the Kotel. So too, its affect will be felt by more than only the Jews living in Israel. This proposed bill, at its core, represents how we relate to one another as Jews—as brothers and sisters.
In the words of my colleague, Rabbi Josh Heller, “David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, offered wise counsel: we must help the [British] army as if there were no White Paper, and we must fight the White Paper as if there were no war.” I feel like we are in a similar moment now. We must stand with Israel as if there were no Kotel Bill, and fight the Kotel bill as if there were no war.”
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