c. 1998 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ For the first time in more than 30 years, a mixed-gender prayer service has taken place under police protection at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.

The service, which took place Sunday (May 31) on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, involved more than 300 people who came to the Wall for traditional morning prayers. The worshippers were largely identified with Judaism’s Conservative movement, also known in Israel as Masorti.

As they have in the past when non-Orthodox men and women sought to pray together at the Wall, Orthodox Jewish protesters sought to disrupt the service by shouting insults and throwing objects. The Orthodox have government-sanctioned religious authority over the Wall, where they seek to enforce traditional rules that keep men and women apart during worship and limit the rites women may perform.

However, this time hundreds of police _ who had been deployed at the site to head off any possible violence _ formed a protective ring around the group and permitted the service to continue.

Conservative leaders said they were delighted with the beefed-up police presence. During past confrontations, including last year’s Shavuot holiday, police have generally forced non-Orthodox, mixed-gender worshippers to leave the area in front of the Wall, saying they were unable to guarantee their safety.”This was a historic precedent,”said Rabbi Ehud Bandel, Israel’s Conservative movement president.”I am grateful for the fact that the Jerusalem police did not surrender to threats of violence and were determined to protect us.” Bandel noted that Israel’s Orthodox chief rabbis had warned that”violence could erupt”if the mixed prayer service took place.

However, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuelik Ben-Ruby said the police had not changed their policies _ but merely decided to let the mixed-gender service proceed because the violence directed against the worshippers was less intense then on previous occasions.”In previous situations, there was a danger to the public, this time we were able to permit them to finish their prayers without being hurt,”said Ben-Ruby.”We are always ready to protect prayergoers, it doesn’t matter who _ although there are political problems we’d rather not get into.” The Conservative movement hopes to negotiate a permanent arrangement at the Wall with Orthodox authorities. The Conservative movement is seeking to gain space where mixed-gender services, as well as women-only services, may be held.

A government-appointed commission is looking at possible compromises under a directive from Israel’s Supreme Court.

The flap over mixed-gender prayers at the Wall is part of a larger dispute between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews for control over Jewish religious life in Israel. Currently, Orthodoxy holds sway in Israel.

Bandel emphasized that the Conservative movement is not seeking to”divide”the Wall into Orthodox and non-Orthodox areas _ but to share the plaza space.”We do not demand to be near the (Wall) stones themselves,”said Bandel,”but in the back of the plaza where there is no division of the sexes, and where men and women mingle already.”His reference was to the broad staging area adjacent to the Wall, which is open to both sexes but where group prayers generally do not take place.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the (Reform) Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which has also sought to gain official permission for mixed-gender worship at the Wall, has called for division of the Wall.

In a statement Monday (June 1), Yoffie noted that most Jews are not Orthodox, saying it is”unthinkable that a majority of world Jewry should be denied the right to pray according to their custom at Jerusalem’s holiest place.” He pointed out that the separation of men and women at the Wall began only after Israel wrested the site from Jordanian control in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Tensions between male Orthodox and non-Orthodox mixed-gender worshippers typically peak at Shavuot, which is a”pilgrimage”festival when thousands of Jews visit Jerusalem and the Western Wall. The holiday _ known in English as the Feast of Weeks _ is a traditional Spring harvest festival that also commemorates the receiving of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai.

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