In the award-winning Israeli film The Women’s Balcony (2016), a charismatic rabbi, Rav Dovid (Aviv Alush), comes to rebuild a collapsed synagogue. However, Rav Dovid also uses his influence to restrict the ability of the women to participate in religious life the way they did before, most notably by removing the titular women’s balcony. In assuming authority, he shatters the community from the inside. What would happen if the government granted someone like Rav Dovid complete authority over the Kotel?

It seems they might be. On February 25th, the Knesset voted 56-47 in favor of a preliminary bill that would grant the Chief Rabbinate complete authority over all parts of the Kotel (the Western Wall). This includes the smaller, separate section by Robinson’s Arch that has been dedicated to egalitarian Jewish worship since a 2000 High Court case—a case that followed decades of negotiations and court battles. In January 2016, the Israeli government passed the Western Wall Agreement in a 15-5 vote, formally granting space, recognition, and authority to non-Orthodox Jews at the southern section of the Kotel. This victory for Jewish pluralism was swiftly shot down, however, when Prime Minister Netanyahu froze the agreement under pressure from Ultra-Orthodox coalition partners a little over a year later. And now, there is the possibility of the “freeze” becoming permanent and the Ultra-Orthodox seizing power over the entire Kotel. Rather than “preserving” Israel’s holy sites and “unify[ing] the Jewish people”, as MK Avi Maoz claims, the proposed bill is in fact an existential threat to the Jewish people.

According to The Times of Israel, the bill—which admittedly has a long way to go before becoming law—would define any activity not approved by the Chief Rabbinate, such as egalitarian worship, as a “desecration,” and currently desecration of a holy place lands you seven years in prison. Diaspora Jews worldwide are already contending with the disturbing and extreme rise in antisemitism. Will the Israeli government now criminalize the religious practices of the majority of those Jews when they are in the Jewish state? As the saying goes: with “friends” like that, who needs enemies?

Rabbi Sergio Bergman, president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (and a friend of mine), asserted in a recent statement that “[the] issue at hand extends beyond the Kotel, representing a symptom of a deeper underlying concern. For Israel to fulfil its role as a Jewish state for all Jewish people, it is imperative that it does not transition into a messianic fundamentalist theocracy.” Indeed, this bill is a serious step towards Israel becoming such a theocracy. As a Reform Zionist, I am especially concerned about this. Imagine a young tween girl being forbidden to read Torah and celebrate becoming a Bat Mitzvah with her entire family at the egalitarian section of the Kotel because of her gender. As Yizhar Hess, vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, so powerfully put it, “How could it be that the only western democracy without freedom of religion for Jews could be the Jewish state?”

In The Women’s Balcony, when the men in the community allow Rabbi Dovid to take over and force his religious traditions on them, deep fractures emerge in the relationships between the men and their wives and within the community in general. In fact, the wives actually leave their husbands and gather in their own separate community in order to make their outrage clear. We are seeing a similar divide on a global scale today. According to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 80% of Diaspora Jews felt that democracy in Israel was “alive and well” in 2010. By 2024, that number had fallen to 52%. I’ve personally heard more and more young adult Jews in New York and elsewhere use words like “colonialism,” “apartheid,” and “genocide” when the subjects of Israel and Israeli policy come up. The relationship between Diaspora Jewry and Israel has been increasingly fracturing, and this will only worsen if the Kotel bill passes. The Israeli government will essentially be saying, “You are not welcome here.” Indeed, this could be the death knell for many Diaspora Jews’ relationships with the Jewish state.

The Times of Israel quoted part of a statement signed by heads of several US Reform Jewish organizations in response to the bill. According to the statement, 85% of Diaspora Jews, particularly in North America, worship in egalitarian communities. Thus, “[criminalizing] those forms of prayer at Judaism’s holiest accessible site would alienate millions of Jews from the State of Israel at a time when Jewish unity is both fragile and essential.” Just as the Jews of the Diaspora need the State of Israel (whether or not they realize it), the State of Israel needs a strong, healthy relationship with Diaspora Jewry. However, like the fictional community in The Women’s Balcony, the Jewish people could be shattered from the inside if this bill becomes a reality.

While the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) has temporarily paused its consulate outreach campaign, this fight is far from over—stay connected through ARZA for next steps as the bill progresses.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)