views

community view

New Plan Needed For Kotel

I

Nancy Kaplan

EDITOR’S NOTE

On June 25, Israel’s ultra-
Orthodox parties pressured
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s government
into nixing the Jan. 31, 2016,
plan that would have added
a new, expanded egalitarian
prayer space in the
Robinson’s Arch area of the
Kotel, equal in dignity and
status to the ultra-Orthodox
spaces. That plan was never
implemented.
(See related news story on
page 10.)

srael should be a place
where all Jews are welcome,
appreciated and treated
with respect. Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has failed
repeatedly to uphold this vision
by allowing the ultra-Orthodox
parties in his coalition to spew
hatred of other Jews and to
bring the government into dis-
repute by violating Torah pre-
cepts of ahavat Yisrael.
It is not only a matter of what
happens at the Kotel. The reli-
gious parties in his coalition
are being hijacked by elements
in the haredi community who
are utterly opposed to compro-
mise and are in league with the
Rabbinut (Chief Rabbinate) to
inflict great distress and injus-
tice on fellow Jews, including
secular Jews, by discriminat-
ing against them in matters of
conversion, marriage, divorce,
adoption and attempting to
outlaw public transportation on
Shabbat.
These rules also inflict harm
on the 20 percent of the Israeli
population who are not Jewish.
I think the entire Kotel area
should be designated as an
Israeli National Heritage Site
and not treated as a synagogue
at all. The latter situation is of
very recent origin. As old photos
attest, prior to 1948, everyone

Contributing Writers:
Joshua Lewis Berg, Ruthan Brodsky, Rochel
Burstyn, Suzanne Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Don
Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman,
Adam Finkel, Stacy Gittleman, Stacy Goldberg,
Judy Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Esther Allweiss
Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer
Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz,
David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz,
Steve Stein, Joyce Wiswell

Arthur M. Horwitz
Publisher / Executive Editor
ahorwitz@renmedia.us

F. Kevin Browett
Chief Operating Officer
kbrowett@renmedia.us

| Editorial

Managing Editor: Jackie Headapohl
jheadapohl@renmedia.us
Story Development Editor:
Keri Guten Cohen
kcohen@renmedia.us
Arts & Life Editor: Lynne Konstantin
lkonstantin@renmedia.us
Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello
smanello@renmedia.us
Senior Columnist: Danny Raskin
dannyraskin@sbcglobal.net
Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar
rsklar@renmedia.us

| Advertising Sales

Sales Director: Keith Farber
kfarber@renmedia.us

Account Executives :

Wendy Flusty, Annette Kizy, Paige Lustig

Sales Manager Assistants :

Andrea Gusho, Karen Marzolf

| Business Offices

Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner

mingled freely at the Kotel
without gender-separation or
formal religious supervision of
the site. Handing control of the
Kotel over to the ultra-Orthodox
after the 1967 war was a ter-
rible mistake. The site should be
administered by a non-religious
entity. Everyone who wishes to
visit the Kotel should be able to
do so, and there should be no
gender discrimination or rules
against men and women con-
gregating in the same space.
If necessary to preserve the
peace, I would even say reli-
gious services should not be
conducted there by any group,
egalitarian or otherwise. (This
has been suggested by Rabbi Dr.
Nathan Lopes Cardozo in his
recent blogpost titled “The Kotel
— Have We Gone Mad?” that
can be found on Facebook and
online at cardozoacademy.org).
If religious services are
allowed to take place, there
should be accommodation for
egalitarian services as well as
those with a mechitzah
(partition), whether that is done
by appropriating separate sec-
tions along the length of the
Kotel or setting up different
hours for different services (as
is already done at traditional
mikva’ot and many Jewish com-
munity center pools).

| Production By
FARAGO & ASSOCIATES

Manager: Scott Drzewiecki
Designers: Kelly Kosek, Amy Pollard,
Michelle Sheridan, Susan Walker

| Detroit Jewish News

Chairman: Michael H. Steinhardt
President/Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz
ahorwitz@renmedia.us
Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett
kbrowett@renmedia.us
Controller: Craig R. Phipps

| Fulfillment

Joelle Harder
jharder@renmedia.us

In the short run, the
Robinson’s Arch site should
be expanded and improved in
terms of access for egalitarian
groups to use for services with-
out interference from Orthodox
groups as has happened several
times in recent months. But the
goal should be to find a way for
egalitarian services to be held at
the Kotel itself, not around the
corner in a relatively tiny “back-
of-the-bus” location.
Netanyahu claims to be help-
less here, but no one forced
him to include Shas and United
Torah Judaism (the two ultra-
Orthodox religious parties) in
his current coalition. He made
that choice because for his own
political purposes he wanted to
exclude certain centrist parties
from the government, whose
presence in the previous coali-
tion was what made it possible
for the religious parties to be
excluded.
Netanyahu fired Yair Lapid
and Tzipi Livni in November
2014 and brought down his own
government forcing new elec-
tions that were held in March
2015. To claim that he has no
choice but to knuckle under to
the demands of Shas and United
Torah Judaism is the height of
duplicity. He can and should
boot them from his coalition

and form a new, national unity
government that would be free
of religious coercion.
I think it is also important
to point out that the January
2016 Kotel agreement, which
Netanyahu has now reneged
on, had a fatal flaw: It would
have given the ultra-Orthodox
authorities total and unfettered
control over the main plaza,
undoing several Israeli court
decisions that previously had
upheld the right of the original
Women of the Wall to daven
with tallit, tefillin and sefer
Torah at the Kotel. That would
have been a huge step back and,
for this reason, I am not com-
pletely sorry that the January
2016 agreement has gone up in
smoke.
As Shulamit S. Magnus, a
founding member of Women
of the Wall, pointed out in
the Jerusalem Post on June 29
(“After the Western Wall Deal:
Don’t Get Mad – Educate”), a
return to the status quo ante
gives all sides the opportunity
to rethink the issues and hope-
fully lead to a better plan — one
which gives all Jews access to
the Kotel. An end to haredi con-
trol over the site. Equal treat-
ment for everyone. •

Nancy F. Kaplan lives in West Bloomfield.

| Departments

General Offi ces: 248-354-6060
Advertising: 248-351-5107
Advertising Fax: 248-304-0049
Circulation: 248-351-5120
Classifi ed Ads: 248-351-5116
Advertising Deadline: Monday, 2 p.m.
Editorial Fax: 248-304-8885

Deadline: All public and social
announcements must be typewritten
and received by noon Tuesday, nine days
prior to desired date of publication.

Subscriptions:
1 year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $85
2 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$153
3 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$204
1 year out-of-state . . . . . . . . . . .$125
2 years out-of-state . . . . . . . . . .$225
Per year foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . .$300

Detroit Jewish News
29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110
Southfi eld, MI 48034
©copyright 2017 Detroit Jewish News

The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is
published every Thursday at 29200 Northwestern
Highway, #110, Southfield, Michigan. Periodical
postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and
additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send
changes to: Detroit Jewish News, 29200
Northwestern Hwy., #110, Southfield, MI 48034.

To make a donation to the
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
FOUNDATION
go to the website
www.djnfounadtion.org

OUR JN The Jewish News aspires to communicate news and opinion that’s useful, engaging, enjoyable and unique. It strives to reflect the full range of diverse viewpoints while also advocating positions that strengthen
Jewish unity and continuity. We desire to create and maintain a challenging, caring, enjoyable work environment that encourages creativity and innovation. We acknowledge our role as a responsible, responsive
MISSION member of the community. Being competitive, we must always strive to be the most respected, outstanding Jewish community publication in the nation. Our rewards are informed, educated readers, very satisfied

advertisers, contented employees and profitable growth.

6

July 27 • 2017

jn

jn

1942 - 2017

Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week