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CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT CHALLENGES
WESTERN WALL PLAZA SPACE CHANGES
by Amiram Barkat
Haaretz, Dec. 16, 2003
The local branch of the Conservative Movement has asked the Religious Affairs Ministry to intervene in a construction project at the Western Wall that would expand the space in which the sexes are separated at the expense of the area where they are allowed to be together.
The project, an initiative of the Western Wall Heritage Fund and the East Jerusalem Development Corporation, would expand the area in front of the Wall, which is used for prayer, by some 600 square meters, at the expense of the upper plaza, which is used for ceremonies and for visitors who are not praying. In the prayer area, men and women are separated by a barrier in keeping with Orthodox tradition, and according to the Conservative Movement, which rejects the separation of the sexes, the construction would result in this barrier being extended by about 15 meters.
The movement's legal advisor, Dan Evron, charged that the project represents an attempt to turn the entire Western Wall plaza into an Orthodox synagogue. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Wall's rabbi, responded that the existing prayer area is too small, and that since the upper plaza is not used for worship, the expansion will not change the religious status quo.
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