Reform Movement applauds Western Wall decision

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), hails the cabinet approval of the non-Orthodox Western Wall section.

“This effort is the result of the extraordinary commitment shown by those in Israel who wouldn’t agree to the second-class status imposed by the ultra-Orthodox religious establishment, and by all of us outside of Israel whose unconditional love for our Jewish state compels us to tirelessly advocate for a more equal, pluralistic, and Jewishly vibrant Israel,” he says.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism says the decision will make the Reform movement “a powerful force” in Israel.

“This struggle and this potential victory is just the beginning of our efforts to ensure that the Jewish state of Israel is indeed a state where all forms of Judaism are practiced freely and without state prohibition – and where those of us who represent the largest force in Jewish life in the world today, the Reform Movement, will be a powerful force inside of Israel and a more visible alternative for worship for Israeli Jews,” he says.