Conservative Jews claim win in wake of protection at wall

JERUSALEM, June 2 (JTA) — Conservative Jewish leaders in Israel are declaring victory after a group of 250 worshipers completed prayers on Shavuot morning at the Western Wall under police protection — despite attempts by hundreds of fervently Orthodox Jews to stop the service. Last year, non-Orthodox Jews who prayed near the Western Wall plaza were attacked by fervently Orthodox Jews who objected to men and women worshiping together because they say it defies Jewish tradition. At that time, the police told the Conservative worshipers to leave the area, saying they could not assure protection. This time, police provided the protection that the Conservative movement had demanded. “We purposely set ourselves up so that we would interfere with as few people as possible,” said Rabbi Andrew Sacks, director of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel. “I never dreamed we would be able to get through the entire prayer service,” he said. But asked whether this year’s police protection represented a new policy, a spokesman for the Jerusalem police said it did not. It was easier to protect the non-Orthodox this year because the Orthodox “were less violent,” the spokesman said. The events on Shavuot mark the latest battle between the Orthodox and liberal streams of Judaism, which are seeking legal recognition for their movements in Israel. Though the Reform movement was not officially part of the mixed prayer service on Shavuot, a delegation of Reform Jews from the United States is planning to hold a mixed-gender service at the Western Wall when they travel to Israel next week. The “leadership pilgrimage” of leaders from Reform congregations around the country will be going to Israel to learn more about issues of religious pluralism, said an official from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform umbrella body organizing the trip. “Part of the motivation for this whole trip is that the denial of full access to the wall is representative of denial of full rights of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel in general,” said Rabbi Daniel Freelander, an executive with the UAHC. According to participants in Sunday’s service, the non-Orthodox worshipers arrived at the Western Wall on Shavuot morning at about 4:45 a.m. Shavuot, which began Saturday night, celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. Although they gathered near the Western Wall parking lot — far from the prayer plaza — it did not take long for fervently Orthodox, or haredi, men to crowd around. When the first haredim arrived, the police did not react. Conservative worshipers demanded protection and agreed to move the minyan a few feet away, as the police requested. Dozens of police then formed a ring around the group, separating the worshipers from a crowd that swelled to hundreds of fervently Orthodox men who shouted, hissed and sang. “We did not respond to the shouting,” said Gad Lewin, 18, an Israeli who is doing community service for the Conservative movement before joining the army. “We came to pray. It was the haredim who came to make trouble, and their behavior was certainly not befitting the holiday.” Orthodox groups, which want to uphold the tradition of separate prayer at the wall, had appealed to the non-Orthodox not to be “provocative” with mixed worship this year. Some haredim threw bottles, eggs and bags filled with water and chocolate milk at the worshipers. Police pushed back any haredim who tried to break the police ring. The worshipers paid no attention. They continued the service, and called women up to the Torah as planned. “I couldn’t be happier that it went smoothly,” Sacks said. “I hope it will become a precedent.” A day after the holiday, Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of Masorti, as the Conservative movement is called in Israel, praised the police for providing protection. “It is their duty to keep the peace and defend the right to freedom of worship at the Kotel,” he said, using the Hebrew word for the Western Wall. “I am very pleased that this time, the police did not give in to explicit threats by the Orthodox chief rabbis who wanted to prevent us from praying.” Bandel was referring to reports that before the holiday, Israel’s chief rabbis sent a letter to the office of the Israeli rabbi responsible for holy sites. According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, the rabbis requested that the Conservative service be stopped because it would “severely undermine everything that has been customary and accepted throughout the generations.” An official at the Chief Rabbinate would not confirm the letter, but said “it was likely” that such a letter was sent because the chief rabbis sent a similar letter last year. The chief rabbis made no comment on the events at the Western Wall on Shavuot. After the haredim failed to thwart the Conservative service, many turned their anger against Palestinians in the Old City, according to officials. In a series of scuffles, nine Palestinians, four haredim and two policemen were injured. (JTA staff writer Debra Nussbaum Cohen contributed to this report.)