Netanyahu’s office denies trying to blame liberal Jews for Western Wall crisis
Israeli diplomats in North America were reported to have rejected a talking point handed down to them from Jerusalem
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office flatly denied a report that it instructed diplomats to blame non-Orthodox Jews for the controversy over the Western Wall.
Israeli diplomats in North America were told to blame the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements for the ongoing crisis in relations between Israel’s government and US Jewry, according to a report in Israeli daily Ma’ariv. According to Ma’ariv, the directive happened in a conference call this week between the diplomats and Jonathan Schachter, a senior aide to Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s office unequivocally denied the report.
“The Prime Minister’s Office denies the directive and the position that were attributed to Schachter in the article,” the statement Friday read. “The conversation did not occur as depicted in the article.”
The controversy between US Jewry and Israel erupted Sunday when the Israeli cabinet voted to freeze a government decision that would have expanded and formalized a non-Orthodox prayer area at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site.
Under the previously endorsed deal, the government agreed to expand the southern section of the holy site, which is used for egalitarian prayer, open an entrance to it from the main Western Wall plaza and appoint an inter-denominational commission to oversee it.
Run by ultra-Orthodox rabbis, the main plaza of the Western Wall features separate spaces for men and women. In Reform and Conservative congregations, prayers are held conjointly.
The government also advanced a bill that would have granted the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, a haredi Orthodox-dominated body, sole authority over recognized Jewish conversions within Israel. The conversion bill was shelved Friday for six months.
Schachter’s directive was given orally, according to the Ma’ariv report, which did not detail the language that Schachter had reportedly asked the diplomats to use. One ambassador reportedly said he would comply with the directive only if Jerusalem transmits the talking point in writing.
A diplomat who was not named in the Ma’ariv article told the newspaper: “It defies belief that after everything that’s happened, the prime minister’s staff are seeking to blame US Jews, who were deeply offended by the government decisions, for the situation.”
In fending off scathing criticism by many American Jewish organizations and individuals over the suspension, an Israeli government official downplayed the move’s significance, underlining the fact that anyone who wishes to pray according to Conservative or Reform custom is able to do so today at the Western Wall regardless of the compromise.
The Times of Israel Community.