Orthodox activists disrupt Tisha B’Av prayer at Western Wall pluralistic plaza
Youths curse worshipers, set up gender partition at site; World Jewish Congress leader slams incident, calls on government to take action to protect other streams of Judaism
Hundreds of far-right Orthodox Jews overran a prayer service being held by the Conservative Movement at the pluralistic prayer plaza at the Western Wall on Saturday night to mark the fast day of Tisha B’Av, which mourns the destruction of the two Jewish temples that stood on the Temple Mount.
Worshipers were reading from the Book of Lamentations, an annual event at the site to commemorate one of the most sorrowful days in the Jewish calendar. The fast began on Saturday evening and lasts for 25 hours.
The activists, mostly teenagers, entered the site, an area separate from the main Western Wall plaza that has been set aside for pluralistic prayer, cursing and screaming at the worshipers before installing a partition to segregate the area by gender.
Video from the scene showed Conservative leaders pleading with the youths to respect the sanctity of the site and the day but to no avail.
Labor party MK Gilad Kariv, the first reform rabbi to serve in the Knesset, who was at the scene, condemned the youths.
“For them, I weep,” Kariv tweeted. “Shouts and curses and then songs of devotion to Jerusalem. This is what senseless hatred looks like under the guise of God’s love.”
על אלה אני בוכייה – תלמידות אולפנה ותלמידי ישיבה מפריעים לקריאת מגילת איכה של הקהילות הקונסרבטיביות ברחבה השוויונית. מחיצה נפרסה לאורך הרחבה. צעקות וקללות ואז שירי דבקות לירושלים. כך נראית שנאת חינם בכסות של אהבת אלוהים. pic.twitter.com/wqZYZIPUPv
— גלעד קריב (@KarivGilad) July 17, 2021
Jewish tradition teaches that the temples were destroyed due to senseless hatred between Jews, among other reasons.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder also slammed the incident.
“I am beyond appalled and dismayed by the baseless hatred demonstrated by a group of extremist Orthodox zealots who disrupted the lawful Tisha B’Av service conducted by Conservative Jews at the section of the Western Wall set aside for egalitarian prayer,” Lauder said.
“The non-Orthodox streams of Judaism are every bit as legitimate as the Orthodox. If not unequivocally condemned by the Israeli government, this latest provocation will only drive a further wedge between Israel and the Diaspora,” he said, calling on Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid to take action.
The Ha’aretz daily reported that the Orthodox Jews were from an organization called Liba, which has been holding daily events at the site in a bid to torpedo plans by the new government to fully implement a long-frozen deal to expand the plaza.
The plan was frozen by then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016 due to pressure from his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, who refused any move that could be seen as legitimizing pluralistic Judaism.
במסגרת "אהבת חינם", קבוצת חרדים לאומיים מתארגנת להשתלט על רחבת הכותל השוויונית (עזרת ישראל) ולשבש את האירועים המתוכננים שם הערב. המחיצות כבר פה, האנשים נוהרים, העימותים תיכף יתחילו. אין על עם ישראל. pic.twitter.com/6Hf5t109pq
— ישראל פריי (@freyisrael1) July 17, 2021
The plan would have seen the establishment of a properly prepared pavilion for pluralistic prayer — as opposed to the current temporary arrangements — under joint oversight involving all major streams of Judaism.
The original plan included three key provisions: a joint entrance to the main Western Wall plaza and the egalitarian prayer space; a new permanent pavilion greatly enlarging the existing modest prayer deck, which has served as a site for pluralistic prayer since 2000; and, perhaps most controversially, a joint council made up of representatives from liberal streams of Judaism and government representatives that would be in charge of overseeing the site.
The original decision to build a new pavilion dates back to January 31, 2016, when the government — spurred by decades of high-profile activism by the feminist prayer group Women of the Wall — approved the so-called Western Wall compromise.
But on June 25, 2017, Netanyahu, facing intense ultra-Orthodox pressure, froze the plan. While killing off the joint entrance and pluralistic governing board, however, he vowed to continue with the construction of a permanent platform.
A remnant of a wall supporting the Second Temple complex destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the Western Wall has been honored by Jews for thousands of years as a place of pilgrimage and prayer. But, while anyone can access the wall and the prayer plaza it backs on to, the site is managed by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which imposes Orthodox practices on worshipers, separating men and women and prohibiting egalitarian prayer services.
The small platform currently used for pluralistic prayer services is located in the Davidson Archaeological Park, tucked into an area called Robinson’s Arch. It is out of sight of the current mainstream Orthodox prayer plaza, separated from it by the ramp leading up to the Mughrabi Gate, which is the only entrance for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount.
