Deputy Jerusalem mayor: Fallen Western Wall stone ‘food for thought’ for Reform Jews

Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Dov Kalmanovich says the large stone that came crashing down on the Western Wall’s egalitarian plaza should serve as “food for thought” for Reform Jews.

While Kalmanovich, of the national-religious Jewish Home party, says it’s not always relevant to attribute natural phenomena to the divine, he says “the timing and the location of the fall raise many questions,” according to the Israel National News site.

“The falling of one of the Western Wall stones, so close to Tisha B’Av, and exactly at the location of the disputed prayer area, should be a red light for us all,” he says. “I suggest that Reform leaders, Women of the Wall and the other provocateurs examine themselves, and not the wall.”

The large boulder that fell this morning near Robinson’s Arch, south of the main prayer plaza, landed on a platform used as an area for nondenominational prayer. The establishment of a permanent, non-Orthodox prayer space has been subject to heavy criticism by some religious officials.