US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides attended a candle-lighting ceremony hosted by the Reform movement at the egalitarian section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem for the third night of Hanukkah on Tuesday.
The move was seen as a gesture by the US envoy in support of non-Orthodox streams, who have been fighting to have the pluralistic section of the holy site formally recognized.
The previous government of Benjamin Netanyahu reached a deal to regulate and renovate the space, but the former and now-incoming premier backed out of the deal due to pressure from ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.
Orthodox lawmakers in the subsequent government and Haredi pressure from the opposition also prevented the deal’s implementation and Netanyahu’s next coalition is highly unlikely to follow through on the agreement either.
During a short speech before the candle lighting, Nides proudly identified as a Reform Jew, drawing applause from the crowd.
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef had called for the chief rabbi of the Western Wall to cancel this year’s candle-lighting ceremony at the egalitarian section, as ultra-Orthodox lawmakers demanded that laws be passed to bar egalitarian and other alternative prayers services at the holy site as part of coalition negotiations.
In a statement, the Reform movement said the ceremony sent “a clear message: The Western Wall belongs to everyone. Attempts to prevent Jews’ and Jewesses’ prayer at the Western Wall will not succeed because there is more than one way to be a Jew or Jewess.”
Halperin in ‘JDN’: Minister Gantz was attacked with shouts when leaving the lighting of the third candle of Hanukkah at the Western Wall. Rabbi Grossman accompanied Gantz to the car, and reminded him of “those who are offended and are not offended, hear their shame and do not answer…”. The minister thanked the rabbi for the reinforcement.
????Political arena‼️ pic.twitter.com/DjYdfRnuqm
— ???? Political arena‼ (@Zira_politit) December 20, 2022
The movement added that it was “happy to host US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides and to increase the light emanating from the Western Wall.”
A separate candle lighting was held at the men’s section of the Western Wall, attended by officials including Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
As he arrived, however, a small group was filmed heckling him, with one person shouting “shame on you!” and repeating a common Netanyahu talking point against Gantz about the latter saying in the past that there is room for two capitals in Jerusalem — one for Israel and another for the Palestinians.
United Torah Judaism chief MK Yitzchak Goldknopf issued a statement condemning the hecklers, in what was the second such incident directed against Gantz at the holy site in recent months.
“The Western Wall belongs to every Jew… it is forbidden to publicly humiliate any person, and certainly someone who devotes his life to the State of Israel,” Goldknopf said.
The Women of the Wall group holds a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Kotel on December 20, 2022. (Women of the Wall)
On the women’s section of the site, the Women of the Wall group, which advocates for gender equality at the Western Wall, held a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony of its own.
The group noted in a statement that the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which administers the site, does not allow women to take part in its candle-lighting ceremonies and the menorah is placed on the men’s side so the women don’t have access to it.
“We were happy to light a menorah in the women’s section at the Western Wall and to create a space for women at the site. We will continue to fight for the place of women at the Western Wall and for the female voice to be heard at the Western Wall, which belongs to every Jew,” said Women of the Wall CEO Yochi Rappeport.
Also on Tuesday, the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City claimed that Arab vandals had destroyed the seminary’s Hanukkah menorah that had been set up outside of its building.
The yeshiva said that it had called police to the scene and a pair of arrests had been made.
This is how a Chanukah looks like a few minutes after it was lit today at the entrance of a house in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Two Arab children were arrested on suspicion of the act.@hakolhayehudi
Photo: Oz Faber / tps pic.twitter.com/DGrCvmC3mN
— Shalom Friedman (@shalom_fr) December 20, 2022
