Chief Rabbinate challenges court jurisdiction to rule on Western Wall deal

Israel’s Chief Rabbinate says the High Court of Justice lacks the jurisdiction to rule on the “intrareligious” struggle involving egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.

In a 166-page brief filed Tuesday with the High Court, the Chief Rabbinate says in part, “The courts are not the appropriate tribunal to decide if Jewish law can be changed and the holy sites can be desecrated.”

The brief says the court does not have the authority to make decisions on the topic of religion, and noted that it would not attempt to make religious decisions for Israel’s Muslim and Christian communities. It adds that the case is about advancing political and feminist issues, not freedom of religion.

“The Rabbinate does not want to set up a wall or to stop Reform and Conservative visitors from visiting the Western Wall and other holy sites,” the brief says. “Each worshiper uses their own prayer book and prays as he or she pleases, and no one gets involved in their prayers. If the petitioners wish to pray at the Western Wall, they may do so. The Reform and Conservative are not obligated to pray in a mixed area by their beliefs, they simply want to. Their religious freedom is not harmed at all.”

The brief also notes that all decisions of a religious nature involving holy sites have been decided by religious leaders, not the courts, since the beginning of the British Mandate.

Filed in the name of the country’s two chief rabbis, the brief is responding to a petition filed with the High Court by the liberal Jewish movements in Israel and the Women of the Wall organization calling for the implementation of a government agreement to expand and upgrade the egalitarian prayer section at the southern end of the Western Wall.

— JTA