When Jews Protested A Violation of the Status Quo

Back in 1928:

Zionist Organization Appeals to the League on Western Wall Issue
November 2, 1928

Here are excerpts from the full text of the memorandum on the Western Wall issue addressed by Col. Frederick H. Kisch, political representative of the Jerusalem Zionist Executive, for the President of the Zionist Organization to the Secretary General of the League of Nations for consideration by the Permanent Mandates Commission which represented the appeal of the Jewish people to the nations of the world for the full protections of the full protection of their right to their Holy Places in the land of their fathers, demands that the Mandates Commission take immediate steps to find a solution to the problem. 

“On behalf of the Executive of the Zionist Organization, which is recognized as the Jewish Agency for Palestine in Article 4 for the Palestine Mandate, I have the honor to request that this petition may be transmitted through the proper channels to the Secretary General of the League of Nations for the information of the Permanent Mandates Commission.

“2. The petition relates to a deplorable incident which recently occurred in Jerusalem on the Jewish Day of Atonement, which has caused the most painful impression throughout the Jewish world.

“About 9 a. m on the Jewish Day of Atonement, falling on September 24, 1928, British police, acting on orders received from the Deputy District Commissioner of Jerusalem, broke through the crowded worshippers at the Kothel-Maaravi, generally known as the Wailing Wall, and effected the removal of portable screen which had been set up the previous evening. The screen separated men and women at worship, in accordance with the traditional Jewish religious rite, but did not interfere with the right of way...In carrying out the order to remove the screen, the police thrust aside, and, as was perhaps inevitable for the execution of the order, knocked down several aged worshippers, men and women. One worshipper holding on to the screen was dragged along the ground.

“The identical screen had been in use in the same position ten days previously on the Feast of the Jewish New Year, without any complaint or protest having been communicated to any Jewish authority.

“3. The Government of Palestine in an official communique have justified the action taken, on the grounds that the screen and its attachment to the pavement constituted an infraction of the status quo which the Government was unable to permit, and that the beadle in charge of the arrangements for the conduct of the Services at the Wall had been instructed, on the eve of the Day of Atonement, that the screen would have to be removed before the Services on the following day.

“The Executive regret that they can not be satisfied with this explanation, and maintain that no formal departure from previous custom as regards ceremonial arrangements for religious Services at the Wall could justify the use of police for aggressive action at such a place and on such a day...

“4. The Executive remind the Permanent Mandates Commission that this is not the first occasion upon which the Palestine Government have found it necessary to make aggressive use of the police at the Kothel-Maaravi. The previous incident also occurred on the Day of Atonement when, in 1925, police were sent by the District Authorities to remove seats and benches placed at the Kothel-Maaravi for the use of aged and infirm worshippers during the Fast, as reported in paragraph 9 of the letter dated May 3, 1926 addressed by Dr. Weizmann on behalf of the Zionist Organization to the High Commissioner for Palestine, for transmission to the Secretary General of the League of Nations. On that, as on the present occasion, the order for police action was given by the Administrative Officer concerned, as a result of representations received from the Moslem authorities in regard to arrangements made for the conduct of Jewish religious services...

“6. In order that the Permanent Mandates Commission may appreviate what such an incident means to the Jewish people it is necessary to explain that the Day of Atonement is the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar. The Shmonch Esrei prayer during which the incident occurred and the police broke in among the worshippers, is the most important prayer of the whole day of worship. The Kothel-Maaravi has ever been the most holy spot for the Jewish nation since the destruction of the Temple.

“7. On the other hand, the Jewish place of prayer at the Wall is not holy to any other nation or community, and while the Jews have for generations past undertaken the most arduous journeys in order to be able to pray at the Wall if only for a few moments, the Moslem neighbors have never used the site for prayer, and have not hesitated to desecrate it in the most offensive manner.

The Executive wish emphatically to repudiate as false and libelous the rumors which have been circulated that it is the intention of the Jewish people to menace the inviolability of the Moslem Holy Place which encloses the Mosque of Aksa and the Mosque of Omar.

“8. The demand of the Jewish people is that they shall be given freedom to pray according to their religious rites without external interference. The land in front of the Wall is a place of prayer for Jews, and an end must be put to a situation under which an institution belonging to another community, in this case the Moslem Supreme Council, can interfere with the manner in which the Jews arrange their religious Services at their most Holy Place.

“10. The situation thus explained is painful and humiliating to the whole Jewish world, and the Executive venture to think that it is unworthy both of the League of Nations and of the Mandatory Power, under whose joint auspices the administration of Palestine is conducted.

“11. The Jewish people have always been anxious to secure for themselves proper conditions for free and undisturbed worship at the Kothel-Maaravi by direct arrangement with the Moslem authorities, with fair compensation for any proprietary rights affected. The Executive submit that the provision of such conditions for Jewish worship at the most sacred place of prayer for all Jewry, is an essential condition of civilized government in Palestine. That real freedom of worship is impossible under existing conditions is demonstrated by reason and confirmed by experience. The Executive therefore submit that the Mandatory Government should take all necessary steps to ensure that an arrangement eliminating the present obstacles to the free exercise of worship at this Holy Place shall be effected within the very near future.

“The Jewish Agency appeals to the Permanent Mandates Commission and to the Mandatory Power to secure this end.”

^

So, The Mechitza Is At Fault

I left this comment here, at Sh'ma:

An admirable treatment but, nevertheless, lacking.

a) to write 'The Western Wall is widely held to be the “most sacred place in the world to the Jewish people,”' without attempting to correct that is odd.  It might be so "held" but the least could have been a notation that the Wall has no intrinsic sanctity in and of itself except by virtue of it being s a retaining wall of the Temple Mount.

And that is relevant to the Women of the Wall issue for if the Wall was truly sacred, what difference would it make to the ladies to be a 100 meters south of the Plaza?  There is the "Little Wall" to the north, next to the Iron Gate, where prayers are conducted.  If the ladies are seeking closeness, is the Plaza the venue or the Wall?  They want to be in the "synagogue" or talk to God?

b) to award the element of "centrality" of the Kotel to Christian visitors when, at least from 14th century, and perhaps earlier, Jews had been praying there and prior to that, during the Geonic and Karaite era, when the Western Wall was off-limits, the Eastern Wall was the location for supplications and circumventing the gates, is odd.  But, still, the Temple Mount is central.  Jews attempted to ascend to the Temple Mount after the Temple's destruction (as Akiba's story attests; Makkot 24B and other external to Jewish sources, including Maimonides visit in 1166), and in the 19th century, the Hatam Sofer, Akiva Eiger, Yehudah Alkalai and Zvi Kalischer discussed the matter of renewing at least the Paschal Sacrifice and Montefiore and later Baron Rothschild visited the Temple Mount, after the Kotel, in the second half of the 19th century.   Oh, and check Herzl's Altneuland where the rebuilt Temple is mentioned.

c)  Correctly, it is noted that "The Wall had not merely been adopted; it had been transformed into an entirely new symbol, redolent with new meanings and a new sacredness" after World War I.  That, of course, was mainly due to the inability of Jews to develop the sacredness of the Temple, due to Halachic restrictions but also to Ottoman practice of disallowing entrance of any non-Muslim.  Look what has happened after 1967 when freedom of access, relatively speaking, was resumed.  But worthy of mention should have been the fact that the event that sent all spiraling was in 1928 when on  September 24, 1928, on Yom Kippur, the mechitza, which had been temporarily up for the two days of the previous Rosh Hashana and had been removed during the midweek, was put up for the fast day by the Admor of Radziman, Aharon Menachem Mendel Gutterman.  The mechitza - then the "culprit" and today as well?

^

Away Goes the Kotel Mechitza

As reported in the HaZman journal, Ocotber 18, 1911:

 

The Turkish governor of Jerusalem prohibited the use of a mechitza, a prayer partition to separate the 60 men and women at the Kotel for the Rosh Hashana prayers in 1911 and it raised a protest.  But what is usually ignored is that during the prayer service, Arabs ran into the small courtyard and beat up Jews with the fists, claiming a disturbance to the peace.  The prayer was halted.

It should be recalled that

In the late 1830s a wealthy Jew named Shemarya Luria attempted to purchase houses near the Wall, but was unsuccessful, as was Jewish sage Abdullah of Bombay who tried to purchase the Western Wall in the 1850s. In 1869 Rabbi Hillel Moshe Gelbstein settled in Jerusalem. He arranged that benches and tables be brought to the Wall on a daily basis for the study groups he organised and the minyan which he led there for years.

The upper front page of Ha'Or, December 12, 1911:

which declares 'Are We a Nation of Rabbits?' and 'By the Kotel We Will Live or Die' and notes that the firman which confirms the Jewish right to hold prayer services at the Kotel and set up a partition was obtained by Baron Rothschild.


On that element:

 ...the Counsel for the Moslems produced a decree issued by Ibrahim Pasha in May, 1840, which forbade the Jews to pave the passage in front of the Wall, it being only permissible for them to visit it "as of old." The Counsel for the Moslems further referred to a decision of the Administrative Council of the Liwa in the year 1911 prohibiting the Jews from certain appurtenances at the Wall. The Counsel for the Jews, on the other hand, referred the Commission in especial to a certain firman issued by Sultan Abdul Hamid in the year 1889, which says that there shall be no interference with the Jews' places of devotional visits and of pilgrimage, that are situated in the localities which are dependent on the Chief Rabbinate, nor with the practice of their ritual. In the same connection the Counsel for the Jews also referred the Commission to a firman of 1841, stated to be of the same bearing and likewise to two others of 1893 and 1909 that confirm the first mentioned one of 1889. Translations of the decrees of 1840 and 1911 as well as of the firman of 1889 are annexed to this Report (Appendices VI-VIII). The firman of 1841 was not actually produced.

This second report from HaZman from January 11, 1912 reports on that firman and further notes that some of Jerusalem's Jews have demanded of the Hacham Bashi to protest to the Governor that his order of also prohibiting chairs and benches contradicts the firman.

The Kotel in 1911:

And from here:

Don't get this mixed up with the 1928 removal of the mechitza.

^

Rabbi Shira Gets Her Walls Mixed-Up

I left this comment:

Shira Epstein writes, "Was it the “Kotel?”  and answers, "No."

That is a failing, as a Rabbi, as a Jew.  The "Kotel", the Wall, extends 485 meters or so, north-south, on the west of Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount.  That "Wall" is but a retaining structure for what is really the literal height of sanctity and spirituality in Judaism, where the two temples stood, where priests and prophets practiced, where heroic men fought the Chaldeans, the Greeks, the Romans, in defense or revolt.  The Kotel became important because we lost our political standing as a sovereign country and had to do with that small section (up until 1948 1967 it was very narrow and short, unlike today), where we couldn't bring benches or partitions and after the 1929 riots, the British banned even shofar blowing.

But today, the Kotel has but secondary importance and even thinking that the Wall that is in front of the massive Plaza, and that the area near Robinson's Arch, or the Little Wall near the Iron Gate or even the eastern wall, has any less sacredness or national consciousness importance is not being a Rabbi or educator, whether Reform, Conservative or evern Ultra-Orthodox.

at this Washington Post story, Girls go to the Western Wall.

______________

UPDATE

Someone commented on my comment and I added:

kbf

 

I do not believe there are any failings in Rabbi Shira's description of her students' experience. Whether the Kotel extends technically beyond the plaza is not the issue. The girls went, with kavanna (intent) to pray in a place they perceived as especially holy. They were treated in appropriately in a sacred space. This is the issue. All those who come to pray respectfully at the Wall, whether in the plaza or by Robinson's Arch, need to be treated with respect. Their prayers should not be thwarted. Thanks Shira, for bringing the perspective of the next generation to the table....See More

 

to kbf:

I did not write about "failings in Rabbi Shira's description of her students' experience".

I wrote of a failing in her presentation of what is the Kotel, is it only the Plaza area, what is its true sanctity, its importance and what happens when only a section of it is sacralized or what are the ramifications.

In this case, without excusing in any way inappropriate behavior by those who were at the wall and wouldn't ease the girls' approach, although I would guess if they had gone to a rock concert it would have been difficult to reach the front of the stage too, the point I was making and which you seem to have completely missed, is that the Rabbi had a responsibility for broadening these girls' education and knowledge. And, unless she didn't write all she said there, she failed.

Another UPDATE

At at this story on the WOWsies (Women of the Wall), I left his comment:

YMedad

10:54 AM UTC+0300

 

hmmmm... will we see a FEMEN-like protest? will that also be promoted by interested anti-Orthodox parties, or, anti-traditionalists?

or, if we don't want to go that far, can we have some support for women - and even men - praying on the Temple Mount? Jewish men and women, that is? how far do liberals go with supporting other rebels and non-conformists against another religion's ritual or customs?

^

Muslim Occupation/Colonialisation/Imperialism or Whatever

Islamic Movement deputy leader Sheikh Kamal Khatib said Monday morning that the Al-Aqsa Mosque includes the Western Wall. He called on Muslims to enter the Temple Mount site but said he opposes violence against Jews praying at the Western Wall (Kotel). Khatib was involved in Sunday’s riots in the area and has been banned from entering Jerusalem for 15 days.

But then again, I wrote about this already.

Last Night of Selichot at Kotel

2 AM early Sunday morning, erev Yom Kippur at the Kotel


(Kippah tip: RH)

And Where Were You 28 Years Ago?

I've written here that twenty-eight years ago, at the reciting of the Birkat HaChama (Benediction of the Renewed Sun Cycle) that I was on the roof of the Makhkama, the former Muslim court next to the Western Wall Plaza, entered through a door on Chain Street, just outside the Temple Mount courtyard, now a base for the Border Police.

Some doubted my memory.

I do myself at times.

But, as luck would have it, I opened up today's Haaretz in English and there, on the very front page, is a story with an accompanying photograph:


I looked carefully above the crowd:

Yes, I'm one of those daredevils:

Papal Room-hopping

The Pope will be coming to Israel (part of the Holy Land) and there seems to be a problem:

Pope Benedict XVI, who confirmed on Sunday that he was coming to Israel in May, will definitely visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, The Jerusalem Post was told on Monday. But he will not tour that part of the museum where a photograph of his predecessor Pius XII is displayed with a caption saying the wartime pope did not act to save Jews from the Holocaust.

...Unlike pope John Paul II, who did visit the Temple Mount but did not go into al-Aksa, Benedict will enter that mosque, the official said.

...the pope would enter the room where the Pius photograph and caption were on display, if the exhibit remained unchanged, it would not prevent the pontiff's coming to Yad Vashem.

I hope the Pope will be informed that the Temple Mount is where the Second (and First) Temple stood - Arafat and also others don't believe that - and where a Jew, Jesus, overturned some tables, a semi-violent direct action protest.

And I hope he gets to the Kotel to leave a note like his predecessor



but that the slip of paper be better guarded than this fellow's note





P.S.

A notice this Pal. media take:

Pope Benedict XVI is to become the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to enter a mosque in Jerusalem when he visits the Holy Land in May.

The papal nuncio to the Holy Land, Msgr Antonio Franco, said the pontiff will visit the 7th-century Dome of the Rock, which is one of the oldest extant Islamic buildings in the world and houses a rock in which the Prophet Muhammad is thought to have left his foot print as he ascended to heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel. ''The visit inside the Dome of the Rock has been agreed in principle,'' said Msgr Franco, who added that the pontiff would be accompanied by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and other Islamic figures. Franco played down reports that Benedict may also visit the nearby al-Aqsa Mosque, saying this ''had not been spoken about''.

=====================================


UPDATE

The Catholics are already going Islamic on the Temple Mount Papal visit.

Radical Left Group - Antifeminist

Well, just when the Jewesses of this world thought they had finally established for themselves at the Kotel a defined location of space to commune with God, after many years of struggle at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, along comes a radical, leftist pro-Pal. group led by a former American human rights lawyer and nixes the deal.

Panel nixes expansion at Western Wall

The Interior Ministry's Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee approved the original plan of the reconstruction project for the Temple Mount's Mugrabi Gate on the condition that certain changes be made in it. At the end of a hearing some two weeks ago, the committee accepted the objections submitted by the Ir Amim organization to the plan for transformation of the area underneath the new bridge into a space for Jewish prayers. In so doing, it rejected an initiative of the Western Wall's rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, which had gained the support of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, to take advantage of the collapse of the bridge as an opportunity to expand the women's section at the site.

...The committee also decided to order the preservation of findings from all historical eras, including the Ottoman period, as well as of remains connected to the Mughrabi Quarter, contrary to the spirit of the government decision on the matter of November 2007, which stated "the Antiquities Authority will eliminate any finding that is not archaeological, while taking into account the elements of preservation, aesthetics, security, safety and possible social hazards." The significance of the decision not to preserve any finding that is not "archaeological," that is, findings dated after 1700, would have meant disregarding any trace of the period of Ottoman rule.

...The committee asked for the final bridge designs to be sent to UNESCO's World Heritage Center. Ir Amim's legal adviser, attorney Daniel Seidemann, welcomed the committee's decision. "In canceling the instructions to transform spaces from Islamic periods beneath the Mughrabi Ascent into synagogues for women at the Western Wall, the committee acted with admirable responsibility," said Seidemann. "In doing so, the committee almost certainly prevented a most dangerous inter-religious flare-up."

And my comments:

1. First of all, since the Ottoman period started in 1517, two centuries of Ottoman construction and architecture will be preserved.

2. Secondly, nothing will be destroyed. Any archeological remains of importance even after 1700 will be moved to another nearby location or a museum.

3. And what have the Muslims and their Waqf been doing for the past century if not dstroying Jewish artifacts. Has Ir Amim ever turned to the courts to prevent what is happening on the Temple Mount or is it only Muslim concerns that bother them rather than a warm feeling of humanism? Did UNESCO ever halt the destruction of the Mt. of Olives cemetery? Ot is Muslim racism to be accepted, the usual leftist patronism?

4. So, Muslim sentiments are to be preferred to Jewish religious sentiments even though no Jew is allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, an obscurantist psoition of theology which Ir Amim accepts willingly but snivels at Jewish prayer needs.

And what do our Jewesses say?

Pictures from Shavuot

Pre-dawn at the Kotel:



With the breaking dawn:



Taken by Ilana Brown

Talking to the "Wall"

Taken Thursday evening during Megillah reading at the Kotel:-





Pictures taken by my dear friend Ben Rappaport

Today's Kotel Cleaning

Kotel had a bit of a cleaning today:

That's a Big 'If'

And also a dumb one.

What 'if'? This one:-

Israel Our Home MK David Rotem says he is ready to do everything to reach peace, including blowing up the Western Wall.

Cohen's answer came in response to a question during an interview with Voice of Peace Radio about how his hawkish party can justify remaining in a coalition with a government who is holding talks with the Palestinians, something his party opposed.
Rotem emphasized that even so-called rightists, in Israel, were pro-peace, adding that he himself would do almost anything to ensure it.

"If they guarantee to me that by blowing up the Western Wall I can save the life of one person, I will place an explosives device near it and destroy it because I am really ready to do everything for peace if I have a real partner for peace," he added.

Why not blow up the Knesset, the Supreme Court or are those scared left/liberal locations?

Pic of First Shabbat at Kotel Post-67

Kind of small and narrow, eh?

Found at Jewlicious