T he secular Jewish media is filled once again with wall-to-wall words about the Wall or more precisely about the heterodox prayer site nearby it (a controversy we might coin Dung-gate after the entrance closest to that site). The space has been open for business since 2000 but in 2014 the Israeli government decided to greatly expand it — presumably because the current space was simply bursting at the seams due to the throngs of heterodox Jewish visitors.
It also decided to create one unified entrance leading to both the Kosel and the heterodox space and to create a multidenominational committee comprised of Reform Conservative and secular Jews to administer the site. After dragging its feet since then on implementing this arrangement the Israeli cabinet has now suspended the part of the arrangement requiring formation of an oversight committee.
To understand what’s going on here we need to understand that far more important than the suspension of this agreement is the suspension of reality that is occurring. We’re all together in a global room arguing and shouting and there are huge elephants roaming that room that are being ignored by everyone present.
First there is the issue of just what heterodox American Jews believe and feel and long for vis-a-vis Israel and the Kosel. Do they as we are told harbor in their bosom a deep love and caring and loyalty toward the State of Israel? Does their inability to stand with their spouses at the Wall deny them a deeply sought religious experience? Does the suspension of the agreement pose a grave danger of alienation from Israel and their deeply loving and loyal relationship with it?
