Supreme Court orders Tel Aviv to allow public Yom Kippur prayers with gender partition
Justices criticize municipal authority for what they said was discrimination against Orthodox worshippers, express frustration at Tel Aviv’s refusal to compromise
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The Supreme Court ordered the Tel Aviv Municipal Authority on Wednesday to allow the Rosh Yehudi Orthodox outreach organization to hold Yom Kippur prayers in the city’s Meir Park with gender separation and a dividing partition for men’s and women’s sections.
In a unanimous decision, the court said the municipality must enable Rosh Yehudi to hold the Kol Nidrei and Neilah prayers in the park, at the beginning and end of the holiday as the organization requested and at the times requested by the group and in an area to be defined by the organization.
The ruling comes after the Tel Aviv Municipality refused to allow such a service with a gender partition anywhere outdoors in the city, citing a municipal ordinance banning public gender separation and despite being requested by the court to agree to such a compromise.
Last Yom Kippur, Dizengoff Square was the scene of a violent struggle between secular activists and a group of Rosh Yehudi worshipers when the organization defied a municipality ban on a prayer service with a gender partition, a decision upheld by the courts, by setting up a barrier made of Israeli flags.
Rosh Yehudi applied again this year for a permit for such services in Dizengoff Square, and when the Tel Aviv Municipality refused, and after the Tel Aviv District Court upheld the decision, the organization appealed to the Supreme Court.
During Wednesday’s hearing, the three justices were highly critical of the Tel Aviv Municipality’s position, accused it of discriminating against Orthodox worshipers and were frustrated by its refusal to countenance the compromise suggested by the court to move the prayers to Meir Park.
Justice Yechiel Kasher argued that the municipality’s stance was discriminatory against Orthodox prayers since the municipality does allow non-Orthodox, mixed-gender prayers in public spaces, the Walla news website reported.
“Do you sir want us to issue a ruling which says that it is permitted to discriminate between Orthodox and those who aren’t Orthodox,” demanded Kasher.
“It’s permitted to pray only where the Orthodox can’t be seen,” he fumed.
His colleague Ofer Grosskopf was similarly critical.
“I don’t understand, the municipality cannot allow prayer according to traditional practices in a public space?” Grosskopf quizzed the municipality’s lawyer.
“You are saying that in a closed space like a synagogue gender separation is possible, but outdoors it’s forbidden? Those who want Orthodox prayer have to go, and those who don’t, don’t have to go? Why does the municipality need to prevent this kind of prayer,” challenged Grosskopf.
The ruling itself, ordering the municipality to accept the compromise the court offered, was issued without the reasoning behind it due to the time constraints of the case, coming just days before Yom Kippur which falls this Friday night and Saturday.
The ruling was welcomed by Rosh Yehudi, as well as a raft of religious politicians, including Shas leader Aryeh Deri, Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli also of Shas, strident Supreme Court critic and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and members of the opposition.
“Tel Aviv is part of the Jewish state, and those who want to pray with gender separation and a divider are able to do so also there,” Rosh Yehudi said following the decision.
“We are happy that the court allowed us to pray in our own way, according to our faith and according to Jewish traditions. Judaism is stronger than any municipal ordinance and than the wretched decision of the Tel Aviv municipality to push aside the [religiously] traditional community, and Judaism itself, from the public sphere.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality said that it had “made it clear on every occasion” that the municipality prohibits any gender separation in public spaces.
“This policy is applied in an egalitarian way to all religions — Muslim and Jewish alike. As a result, requests to conduct ceremonies that include gender segregation are rejected,” it said.
Avrham Poraz, a member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Council for the Secular Green party, said, “This whole story has nothing to do with prayer; it is an act of defiance, an attempt to forcibly occupy Tel Aviv’s public space,” adding that “there are hundreds of synagogues in Tel Aviv where you can have gender separation.”
Right-wing and religious lawmakers welcomed the ruling.
“The High Court was right when it overturned the Tel Aviv Municipality’s unfathomable decision to prevent Jews from praying in public according to the tradition of Israel on Yom Kippur,” tweeted New Hope MK and Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
“To stand for this simple and important thing in the only Jewish country in the world against the arbitrariness of a governmental authority is not only the right judicial decision, in my view, it’s a sanctification of God’s name.”
The court’s ruling is the “most logical, most Jewish and most democratic” response, stated MK Moshe Gafni of the ultra-orthodox United Torah Judaism party. “Although the decision is limited to certain prayers and a certain year, I praise this precedent which is completely rare in the court for everything related to religious issues and the religious and ultra-Orthodox public.”
“Tel Aviv will remain Tel Aviv” even after the ruling, said National Unity MK and former Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, calling social cohesion during wartime an “existential need.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called on the “liberal public” to refrain from reacting to the ruling and from giving those organizing the services “the quarrel they want.”
“Don’t go and protest because that’s what they’re looking for. It’s better to ignore them,” he states, adding: “We will go to joint ceremonies of a tolerant, welcoming Judaism that respects the true tradition of Israel.”
Mati Wagner and Sam Sokol contributed to this article.