(Seated at head of table are Rakefet Ginsberg, WZO Vice Chair Yizhar Hess, third from the left President Herzog, far right MK Alon Tal next to MK Gilad Kariv)

Masorti Matters Blog

Gideon Aronoff, Executive Director, Masorti Foundation

In an important and encouraging meeting, Israeli President Isaac Herzog hosted a delegation of organizations urging the re-instatement of the 2016 Kotel agreement.  Rakefet Ginsberg, CEO of  Masorti Movement, together with her colleagues from Reform, Women of the Wall and the World Zionist Organization, urged President Herzog to move quickly  resolve the ongoing issues around the Kotel Agreement.

Among those participating in the meeting with Herzog were MK Alon Tal of the Blue and White Party, MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv of Labor (and the first Reform rabbi in the Knesset),

Said Rakefet Ginsberg, ” The Masorti Movement thanks President Herzog for his continuing efforts to protect religious freedom in Israel and prevent violence and bloodshed at the Kotel (Western Wall) Plaza.”

She added: “The Egalitarian Kotel is the ideal solution to the power struggles currently taking place at the Western Wall Plaza.

“It is a solution that not only does not take an inch away from the existing Orthodox area, it also allows for prayer for Conservative, Reform and secular Jews in Israel and from the Diaspora.”

“We hope that the president, the prime minister and all the other ministers concerned will put an end to the ongoing crisis that undermines the unity of the people of Israel and endangers those who pray at the Western Wall.”

The Masorti Movement’s leaders, along with leaders from Reform, have been tirelessly advocating to the Israeli government on the importance of a peaceful place for fully inclusive, egalitarian prayer at Judaism’s holiest site — a site for all Jews everywhere. These are core Jewish values embodied in the Kotel agreement of 2016.  It is time for the government to honor this agreement.