A bill that would ban non-Orthodox prayer at the Kosel and criminalize violations with a seven-year prison sentence is advancing in the Knesset, with a key committee expected to take it up as early as next week.
The legislation, sponsored by MK Avi Maoz of the Noam party, would grant Israel’s two chief rabbis final authority over all mekomos kedoshim. Any activity conducted contrary to their instructions, including the mixed-gender gatherings currently held at the Ezrat Yisrael section of the Kosel, would be classified as a “desecration” under the law.
The bill passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum 56-47 in March, despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu having canceled a Ministerial Committee for Legislation meeting days earlier in an apparent effort to prevent the government from officially backing it. The move was widely seen as an attempt to avoid friction with Diaspora Jewish communities. Netanyahu’s office had signaled the bill would not clear the preliminary reading. It did.
The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, chaired by MK Simcha Rothman, will now prepare the bill for its first full Knesset reading. A date has not yet been set, but a committee spokesperson said it is expected to be scheduled as early as next week.
The Ezrat Yisrael section, located near what is known as Robinson’s Arch, currently operates in a legal gray area. It falls technically under the authority of the Kosel’s chief rabbi but is permitted to function as an egalitarian prayer space by prime ministerial order. Reform and Conservative groups have used it for years, though they have long complained of inadequate facilities and the inability to pray while touching the actual stones of the Kosel.
A separate but related bill is also in play. Legislation sponsored by Rothman that would amend the Law of Return to recognize only halachic conversions for purposes of aliyah and citizenship was slated for a committee vote Sunday but was postponed for 30 days at Netanyahu’s request. For decades, Israel has extended Law of Return eligibility to those converted by Reform and Conservative movements abroad, and since 2021, to non-Orthodox conversions performed within Israel as well. Rothman’s bill would end that.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
13 Responses
Ironically the people holding those torahs don’t follow a single thing it says, yet they’re so adamant about coming to pray with it
Then these yentas will run to the supreme court and they will make seperate prayers illegal like they did on Yom Kippur the week before the attack on simchas Torah.
Just what Israel needs – the alienation of reform and conservative Jews. Hitler killed non-halakhic Jews, but Israel would not grant them protection and the rights of Aliyah!! This will further divide our people unnecessarily.
dryidd there is no alienisation because they aren’t jewish
DrYidd
Interesting that you get your halachic cues from Hitler
DrAnti-Torah, NO REFORM JEWS ARE A DANGER TO AM YISROEL AND MUST BE KEPT OUT OF ISRAEL AT ALL COST. AS REFORM CAUSED THE SPIRITUAL HOLOCAUST IN THE US AND ELSEWHERE.
DRYID
Is alienating reform the primary issue? I would think that bringing in numerous non Jews who intermarry with secular Israelis is far worse
There is also nothing wrong with having orthodox standards at the kotel.
What is a non halachic Jew? I grew up in the secular world and know more secular Jews than religious Jews. We are all Jews regardless of religious practice and the Eibishter loves every one of us – most definitely including those who are not practicing – more than we can conceive.
But if you’re not Jewish you’re not Jewish. Jewish mother or legitimate conversion.
DrYidd: it’s a good idea to alienate and otherwise persecute heretics
Look at dr.yidd who not only spits at our great rabbis on a daily basis because they don’t agree with him about risking Jewish Souls for military service so he decided they’re obviously all stupid, but here he goes sticking up for reform and conservative Jews that more than half of them are in Jewish at this point based on their intermarriage math. We don’t need to protect them. We need to Exile them for the destruction they cause to our people, not your people
Keith- the chumash says non-stop that he doesn’t love non-observant Jews. Maybe open the book and get a clue finally? If someone turns down the Commandments that God made for them, just like any human King would be super pissed, Hashem is infinitely pissed. Enough of this liberal trash you brought from God knows where. Just open the book please read read nobody knows how to read
This would not go over well with the secular majority in Israel, and especially with the secular majority in America (and one should note there whereas frum Jews are doing okay financially in America, non-Jews tend to be quite well off and are politically and economically important to the zionist movement).
@keith: non halachic Jew means exactly what your finishing sentence is referring to; a person claiming, pretending or assumed to be a Jew, but he is not Jewish at all. – It does not refer to Jewish people who sadly have not received religious education and therefore are not practicing.