Who Were Those Jews and What Was That Site?

Jews broke into a religious sacred site today.  Scuffles broke out.

They marched toward the prayer plaza at the holy site with the Torah scrolls to conduct a prayer service and one of the leaders said:-

"We broke through. We made history"

The clashes were unprecedented and the scene was one of pandemonium and unprecedented violence as the Jews broke through security barriers with Torah scrolls in their arms. Moreover, Police stationed at the site did not intervene to stop the violence. Instead, they observed and even filmed the scene.  The breakers-in were met by a Jew who has lobbied against the group's approach to the holy place who pleaded with the protesters to “respect the custom of the place” and not enter with their Torah scrolls. His pleas fell on deaf ears.

One of the leaders of the protest said he and other Jewish leaders were not deterred by the outbreak of violence. “We will not forfeit our right to be here,” he said. “We will change this place, we will change this country and make this a home for all Jewish people.” 

Are you thinking the protesters who shoved their way in were fanatical, extremist, right-wing Jews demanding that the government lift its status quo policy and permit Jewish prayer within the Temple Mount?

Nope.

They were Reform and Conservative Jews demanding the right to egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall Plaza.

Everything is okay when you're not Orthodox or right-wing, right?

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Even the Aguda's Rabbi Avi Shafran noticed this:

The protesters didn’t choose to proudly venture onto the Temple Mount, the most Jewish spot on earth, despite being unfettered by halakhic concerns about ascending the Mount. They seem to recognize the wrongness of trying to “liberate” that holy site, as Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv described what the protesters had done to the Kotel plaza.

Speaking of the Temple Mount, Reform Rabbi Eric Yoffie, a former leader of his movement, recently invoked the across-the-Jewish-spectrum condemnation of the recent UNESCO resolutions omitting the site’s connection to the Jewish People as requiring the upending of the status quo at the Kotel.  “Surely,” he wrote, “Reform and Conservative Jews, who have joined in the battle against UN Israel bashing, should have the right to pray at the Wall as a recognized community.”

Odd that he misses the irony of his thought.  The idiocy of the UNESCO resolutions was their refusal to acknowledge historical truth. But Rabbi Yoffie and his allies do something similar, glossing over the historical truth that, for centuries, the Temple Mount was where the Jewish people gathered to pray in, yes, “Orthodox” fashion, with men and women separated and with adherence to halakhic norms.

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