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RA RABBIS PROTEST KOTEL WORKS
e-masorti, Feb. 11, 2004
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| Police
arresting Rabbi Alberto Baruch Zeilicovich, of Congregation Ahavath
Sholom, Fort Worth, TX. |
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After morning prayers at the Masorti Kotel (Robinson's Arch) yesterday, some 200
Conservative walked to the Western Wall Plaza. The rabbis went to assess the expansion
of the segregated area in front of the Kotel, which will remove mixed groups of
men and women even further from the Wall.
The building project, initiated by the Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Kotel
and responsible for the Jewish Holy Places, is adding 600 square meters (6,500
square feet) to what is essentially an Orthodox synagogue, spanning the width
of the Kotel.
The rabbis unfurled a banner that claimed, “The Wall belongs to all of us.”
During the short protest, police detained Rabbi Alberto Baruch Zeilicovich, of
Congregation Ahavath Sholom, in Fort Worth, TX, inaccurately claiming that he
had attacked a policeman. Rabbinical Assembly in Israel president, Rabbi Mauricio
Balter of the Hakrayot Masorti Congregation in Kiriat Bialik, obtained Rabbi Zeilicovich’s
release, while the other rabbis sang outside the Kotel police station.
Tomorrow, the RA is expected to accept a resolution decrying the present works
at the Kotel Plaza and demanding that the Israeli government ensure that the Kotel
is open for all Jews.
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rabbis march to the Kotel claiming that the “Wall belongs to
us all.” |
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to r: policemen; Rabbi Andrew Sacks, Masorti’s Religious Affairs
Bureau director; Rabbi Ehud Bandel, Masorti president; Rabbi Mauricio
Balter, Rabbinical Assembly in Israel president |
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Next week, Masorti officials will meet with Rabbi Rabinowitz to discuss the building
project, which the Movement is threatening to halt with a court order.
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