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JANUARY 20, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
There’s No Compromising with the Kedusha of the Kotel
Why You Need to Sign the “One Kotel” Petition Now BY SUSAN SCHWAMM
A
sk any child to draw for you a picture of Eretz Yisroel, and undoubtedly, you’ll find a sketch of the Kotel in your hands a few minutes later. Layers upon layers of stone, crevices overflowing with scraps of paper filled with prayers, and soaked with tears, the Kotel is the heart of the Holy Land. Although every part of our homeland is precious and cherished – from the rolling hills of the Golan, to the shores of Tiveria, to the thirsty desert of the Negev, and to the verdant forests of Tsfas –
the Kotel, the last remnant standing of the surrounding walls of the Beis Hamikdash, is the place where we feel the most at peace. And that is why the Reform and Conservative movements have set their sights on the Kotel. “It’s only the beginning,” Leah Zagelbaum, Director of Operations for Am Echad, says. A Bit of History Let’s back up a few years – or maybe many years – and talk about the
history of the Kotel in recent times. One hundred years ago, Israel – then known as Palestine – was under Ottoman rule. During that time, the area of the Kotel was under the authority of the Muslim Waqf, and Jews were forced to pay a tax for the privilege of praying in a small alley along the Wall that stretched a mere 28 meters. Jewish philanthropists like Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron Edmond Rothschild attempted to buy parts of the Western Wall, but their efforts were rebuffed. Entreaties to
allow Jews to erect benches for those who wished to pray at the Kotel were refused by Muslim authorities. In 1929, amidst unfounded rumors that Jews wished to take over the Western Wall, rampaging Arabs slaughtered scores of Jews in the tragic Hevron Massacre. British reaction to the murders (Palestine was then under British rule, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire) was tepid – an investigation into the pogrom called them “1929 disturbances.” The British government concluded after
