Progressive groups slam Knesset bill restricting Western Wall prayer

Australian progressive Jewish organisations have condemned legislation advanced in the Knesset that would grant the Chief Rabbinate exclusive control over prayer at all areas of the Western Wall, warning it would effectively criminalise non-Orthodox Jewish worship.

The Union for Progressive Judaism, ARZA, Assembly of Rabbis and Cantors of Australia, Netzer  and Mercaz-Masorti issued a joint statement on Wednesday following the Knesset’s 56-47 preliminary vote in favour of the bill, which would prevent Jews from holding prayer services at the Wall under threat of imprisonment for up to seven years.

“This is a law that targets Jews who are not Orthodox and undermines the fundamental principle of freedom of religion,” the statement said.

“For the majority of Australian Jews who identify with Progressive, Reform, or Masorti traditions, these developments feel like a direct assault on the legitimacy of our own religious lives.”

The organisations said the impact was “profound and painful” at a time when the Israeli government was asking for unwavering advocacy and support in the face of rising global antisemitism.

“It is simultaneously signalling that our Judaism is ‘second-class’ or, worse, a legal transgression,” they said.

“To be told that an egalitarian Bnei Mitzvah or a woman’s prayer at the Kotel could be met with state-sanctioned penalties feels like a betrayal. It creates a sharp cognitive dissonance: we are asked to stand on the front lines for a state that is actively legislating against our right to exist as religious equals.”

The organisations said they would formally write to the Israeli Embassy in Australia urging immediate intervention to ensure the bill does not become law.

The bill, sponsored by far-right Noam MK Avi Maoz, is intended to undercut last Thursday’s High Court of Justice ruling that the state must move forward with the upgrade of the Western Wall egalitarian plaza, which would allow non-Orthodox prayers at a lesser-used portion of the holy site.

The new bill would give the country’s two chief rabbis, both Orthodox, ultimate authority over Jewish holy sites including the so-called Ezrat Israel, which has been used as an egalitarian prayer area, and define any activity at the site contrary to their instructions, such as non-Orthodox worship, as a “desecration”.

Days ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in order to prevent the government from backing the bill in an apparent bid to avoid pushback from Diaspora Jews.

Netanyahu ultimately allowed members of his coalition to vote freely, although several Likud lawmakers, including Yuli Edelstein and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, ended up skipping the vote.

Celebrating the passage of his bill “preserving” Israel’s holy sites, Maoz said it would “unify the Jewish people, both those in Israel and those in the Diaspora”.

Anna Kislanski, CEO of the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism, called the bill “patronising and antisemitic”.

“The State of Israel is about to criminalise non-Orthodox Jewish prayer at the Western Wall. What hypocrisy. If such a law were to be passed in the United States, Australia or Britain, and prevent Jews from holding their prayers under threat of imprisonment for up to seven years, the State of Israel would immediately launch a fierce fight against antisemitism,” Kislanski said.

The bill will now go to committee for further discussion ahead of the first of three readings needed for it to pass into law.

WITH TIMES OF ISRAEL