Collapse of the proposed compromise over the Kotel

Women of the Wall and liberal Orthodox circles have not let up in their battle to hold prayers at the wall as they wish in the main Western Wall plaza, which is under the auspices of the chief rabbi of the Western Wall, and which a government plan defines as following Orthodox custom.

On Thursday morning a group of women held a prayer service in the women’s section of the main Kotel area. Their attempts to smuggle in a Torah scroll into the area were stopped, and police detained a man who attempted to remove a Torah scroll from the men’s section and hand it to the women on their side of the gender divider.

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With Western Wall Prayer Deal Dead, Orthodox Stake Brazen Claim to Egalitarian Area

As the government ignores the question of opening the Western Wall to non-Orthodox denominations dozens of Orthodox Jewish worshippers are establishing facts on the ground by holding festive holiday prayer services everyday in the section of the Western Wall, or Kotel, that had been intended for non-Orthodox prayer.

Demonstrative Orthodox services are being held at the Robinson’s Arch compound a few times daily, as a result of a public relations campaign by religious Zionist bodies.

These prayer sessions are perfectly legal and violate no rules, as long as no “local custom” has been established for the new compound.

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