Early this year, after long and arduous negotiations, representatives of the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform denominations, together with figures from the Israeli government, worked out a compromise to allow for mixed-sex prayer at the Western Wall. The agreement, however, was tabled before going into effect due to opposition from ultra-Orthodox parties in the Knesset and is now in danger of being jettisoned completely. To Natan Sharansky—who, as head of the Jewish Agency, was the prime architect of the deal—doing so could cause lasting damage:
[T]he compromise reached over the Wall was truly remarkable. . . . [It] granted legitimacy to non-Orthodox communities while acknowledging that Orthodoxy remains Israel’s de-facto religious common denominator. The proposed arrangement, in turn, received the support of a huge majority of the Israeli government. Each of the parties to this unprecedented agreement understood something that their respective constituencies tend to overlook.
On one side, the representatives of the Israeli religious and political establishments recognized that Reform and Conservative Jewry are not fringe sects, as some in Israel seem to imagine, but important venues for large numbers of Jews who reject the strictures of Orthodoxy yet want to remain part of the Jewish people. . . .
For their part, the non-Orthodox parties to the agreement recognized that Orthodoxy’s preeminence in Israel is not an accident. Rather, it stems from the historic need for a unifying religious force in the Jewish state. . . .
[T]o abandon the Wall agreement now is to legitimate extremism, to alienate large groups of fellow Jews, and to allow discord to poison our public life further. . . . Anyone who cares about the future of the Jewish people should care about this issue.
Read more on Tablet: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/212604/the-kotel-compromise