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Rabbi imposes ban at Jerusalem’s western wall

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There’s a battle of sorts under way at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The rabbi overseeing Judaism’s holiest site has banned new immigrant ceremonies at the Wall. The rabbi says it’s a noise issue. But the government says it’s about whether men and women can sit together at the wall. Reporter Linda Gradstein has the story.

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MARCO WERMAN: The Western Wall in Jerusalem is Judaism’s holiest site.  Some eight million people visit the wall every year.  That includes new immigrants who head there straight from the plane to become Israeli citizens. But the rabbi in charge of the wall has now banned such ceremonies. He says they make too much noise.  But the government Immigration Agency says more about whether women and men should be allowed to sit together at the ceremonies.   Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: Some 200 new immigrants to Israel this week attended a ceremony where they received their Israeli citizenship less than 24 hours after arriving in the country.  For many, it’s an emotional moment that they’ve been anticipating for years.  But instead of being handed  their blue I.D. cards at the most resonant site in all of Judaism, they’re in the courtyard of the Jewish Agency Building in Downtown Jerusalem. Jewish Agency spokesman, Michael Jankelovits, says it’s not what the immigration agency had wanted.

MICHAEL JANKELOVITS: It is a symbol with which Jews from all over the world can identify with, and it’s emotional the day after you land in Israel that you are given your identity card at the Western Wall.

GRADSTEIN: But he says the Jewish Agency, a secular body, will not agree to have men and women separated as the rabbis at the wall had demanded.  Thursday is Bar Mitzvah Day at the Wall.  At the security check point hundreds of Israelis are trying to push their way through. There are separate entrances for men and women.  At the Wall itself, a high barrier separates the sexes. Women climb on white plastic chairs to see over into the men’s side.  More than a dozen Bar Mitzvahs are being held simultaneously.  The women throw candy at the male worshipers. On the large white stone plaza a few hundred feet from the wall, there’s no separation between men and women and tourists and Israeli.  It was here that the Jewish Agency used to hold the ceremony.  Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi in charge of the site for the past 14 years, says the reason he has now turned the Agency down has nothing to do with gender separation.

RABBI RABINOWITZ: [Interpreted]  The Western Wall is not a banquet hall.  A Jew comes here to pray, to look at the stones, to think about archaeology.  He doesn’t want to hear microphones and applause.

GRADSTEIN: Rabbi Rabinowitz says the Jewish Agency is welcome to bring the new immigrants to a prayer ceremony at the Wall as long as they obey the Orthodox rules and men and women pray separately.  But his demands have caused tension in a country where resentment of the Orthodox’s power has been growing.  Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the Executive Director of the Israeli movement for Progressive Judaism, says its time for the secular majority to take back the Wall.

RABBI GILAD KARIV: We are speaking about who is shaping the spiritual and national narrative of the State of Israel and the Jewish people, and we are talking about our ability to shape a pluralistic society.

GRADSTEIN: The new immigrants, just one day in Israel, have already become part of this debate. The Jewish Agency says they’re working with the rabbis to find a site for their ceremonies where they can at least see the Western Wall.  For the World, I’m Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem.

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