WOW, Reform, Masorti movements say compromises were necessary, haredim vote against decision but did not fight to defeat it.
an historic landmark for Jewish pluralism and the non-Orthodox movements in Israel, the cabinet on Sunday voted to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall and to anchor the arrangement in law.
Leaders of the Reform and Conservative Movements in Israel and North America welcomed the agreement as a breakthrough in their struggle for formal recognition in the Jewish state and their campaign to demonstrate an alternative to Orthodox Judaism in Israel.
The haredi leadership however, along with parts of the conservative national-religious leadership, strongly denounced the agreement and voted against it in the cabinet vote, but did not fight against it or threaten to bring down the government as they could have.
The plan adopted by the cabinet will see the current prayer platform for non-Orthodox prayers at the Robinson Arch area at the southern end of the Western Wall significantly upgraded from its current status.
Prayer in the egalitarian section will be mixed gender but will include space for women’s only prayer as demanded by Women of the Wall. It will be fully accessible and visible to all visitors to the Western Wall from the main entrance to the site, another key demand of Women of the Wall.
It will also constitute a “fully functional and operational” prayer space with the requisite infrastructure and will provide prayer books, prayer shawls, Torah scrolls, and other necessities for regular prayer services.