JERUSALEM Natan Sharansky said the implementation of his plan to expand the non-Orthodox prayer site at the Western Wall could begin in as little as one month.
In an interview on April 11 with JTA, Sharansky sounded cautiously optimistic about his proposal to create an egalitarian space equal in size to the current mens and womens sections combined.
The Jewish Agency for Israel chairman was charged last year with finding a solution to mounting tensions over womens prayer at the Western Wall.
After three months of consultations with a wide spectrum of Israeli and American Jewish leaders, Sharansky unveiled the proposal April 9 in New York. Now back in Israel, he will present the plan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He hopes his solution to improve an already existing egalitarian space in an archeological park known as Robinsons Arch could be implemented within one to two months.
This issue will keep haunting us all the time as long as there is no basic agreement, Sharansky told JTA in his Jerusalem office.
There must be an opportunity for every Jew in the world to pray at the Wall in the manner he or she wants without interfering with the prayers of others. I believe it is possible to reach a very broad consensus.
Read earlier news coverage, “Can Sharansky change the Wall?“
The plan calls for the Robinsons Arch area, currently excavated many feet below ground by archeologists, to be raised to the level of the current Western Wall plaza. The two sections would share an entrance.
Sharansky told JTA that the Mughrabi Bridge to the Temple Mount, which now separates Robinsons Arch from the main plaza, would remain intact.
Accommodating non-Orthodox groups while the plan advances remains a pressing question, and Sharansky was vague about how to address it. He said a permanent agreement would decrease tension.
TENSIONS rose again on April 11 when five women were arrested by police for wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall, which contravenes Israeli law requiring respect for local custom there.
According to a statement from Women of the Wall, an advocacy group that has pressed for womens equality at the Wall, a Jerusalem judge subsequently ruled that there were no grounds for the arrest and that womens prayer does not disturb public order.
Under Sharanskys plan, women would be allowed to wear prayer shawls at Robinsons Arch.
In the absence of an agreement well have this morning every month, no doubt, Sharansky said.
Netanyahu must convene a forum to formally approve the plan before a specialized group of professionals conducts negotiations featuring the relevant parties, including the Western Walls rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, and Israeli Conservative and Reform leaders.
After that, a timeline would be established for construction and an interim solution found for non-Orthodox worshipers. Only then will the space be dedicated and construction begin.
Only one week ago, I was told [there was] no chance Ill get an agreement from different sides to discuss seriously this option, Sharansky said. As you can see, all the sides expressed their reservations, but everyone understands that the dangers of not having a solution are much bigger.
Sharansky acknowledged that the plan could still face myriad hurdles. Even if the process goes smoothly, it could be derailed by archeological concerns at Robinsons Arch, opposition from the Waqf the Muslim body that controls the Temple Mount or a budget shortfall.
There are so many bureaucratic obstacles and so many organizations that can destroy and undermine the plan, Sharansky told JTA. Tomorrow, well find out that archeological authorities have their problems and local authorities have their problem.
Sharansky said that not one brick connected to Mughrabi will be touched and not one area under control of the Waqf will be challenged, but I cant decide for them what to do.
PERHAPS as a sign of difficulties to come, Israeli religious pluralism activists have already expressed fear that Sharanskys proposal will take years to implement and could face roadblocks that prevent it from coming to fruition.
The plan could encounter obstacles from the Israeli government, as well as from the Islamic Waqf, which administers Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount.
I think its very ambitious, said Lesley Sachs, director of Women of the Wall, which holds monthly womens prayer services at the Wall. We havent seen the plan, but were talking about a very ambitious endeavor that will take a long time to implement.
In order to allow for egalitarian prayer at the Wall, the Israeli government will have to change a 1981 ordinance that prohibits any Jewish practice which deviates from local custom.
At the Wall, local custom is determined by Rabbi Rabinowitz, an Orthodox leader who has opposed any change to the status quo.
The current ordinance has led to the arrest and detention of Women of the Wall for singing at the Wall and wearing prayer shawls. Sachs is concerned that until the plan is implemented, her group will continue to face arrests and detentions.
Rabinowitz in a statement offered approval for Sharanskys plan in order to stop the Wall from becoming a battlefield between one group of extremists and another.
This re-division of the plaza does not match my worldview, as I believe that there should be one site of prayer according to the places customs, but we can live with this solution, Rabinowitz told Ynet, the website of Yediot Achronot, on April 10.
The newspaper reported that the Rabinowitz had been involved in recent months in planning the suggested solution, citing unnamed sources at the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.
Liberal activists, however, think the battle will continue.
Sharansky means well and clearly his attempt to bring about a peaceful compromise is praiseworthy, said Uri Regev, the head of Hiddush, a religious pluralism nonprofit. But it will take many years in which the conflict will continue because the Women of the Wall will insist on their right to maintain their practices.
ITS unclear whether Israels governing coalition will approve a change to the ordinance that allows for the new prayer section and under whose authority the new section would fall.
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, an Israeli government-funded body run by Rabinowitz, controls the plaza now, but Rabinowitz has been hostile to egalitarian groups. And because Robinsons Arch is an archaeological site, construction there could take months to be approved.
Initial responses from non-Orthodox Jewish leaders mostly supported Sharanskys idea.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, told the New York Jewish Week that the initiative represented a significant step toward respecting and protecting the rights of non-Orthodox Jews.
The biggest obstacle to the plan, however, may come from the Waqf, which has opposed Israeli construction at the Temple Mount.
The Waqf has protested Israels right to make decisions there because the Temple Mount is located in eastern Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their capital.
In 2011, the Waqf fiercely opposed Israels closing of the Mughrabi Bridge, which provided an entrance to the Temple Mount for Muslim worshipers. The bridge cuts between the current plaza and Robinsons Arch and would have to be moved to accommodate Sharanskys plan.
