The deep dispute between the government and non-Orthodox streams of U.S. Jewry over the issue of mixed-gender prayer at the Western Wall is nearly resolved, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.
Last year, the government canceled a landmark decision that would have given Reform and Conservative Jews the right to pray at the Western Wall in mixed-gender groups. The decision would also have enabled representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements to take part in managing the holy site.
The government revoked the decision under pressure from the ultra-Orthodox parties as well as from Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud) and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Habayit Hayehudi).
The cancellation of the agreement caused a rift between the government and the leaders of the non-Orthodox Jewish streams. In an attempt to resolve the crisis, Netanyahu charged Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegi with putting together a new agreement that would accommodate all sides.
Eventually, Netanyahu decided to instruct the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem to build an alternative prayer site for the use of Reform and Conservative mixed-gender groups, without having the cabinet approve the move.
However, as per Hanegbi's recommendation, the Reform and Conservative streams will have no voice in the management of the site.
The Jewish People Policy Institute think tank on Sunday presented the cabinet with its findings for this year.
Institute co-chairmen Stuart Eizenstat and Dennis Ross told the cabinet that while according to several parameters the State of Israel and the Jewish people had grown stronger, the crisis with U.S. Jewry over the Western Wall still represents a major problem.
Netanyahu responded that the Western Wall issue would soon be solved. He did not elaborate.
But he agreed that there is no imminent solution to the division over the issue of Orthodox vs. non-Orthodox conversion to Judaism.
Netanyahu stressed that despite the demographic changes in U.S. Jewry, "we cannot give up on Reform and Conservative Jews."
Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett said, "After the existence of the State of Israel, the future of Diaspora Jewry is the second-most important issue on the national agenda."
