{"id":2364,"date":"2010-08-26T17:09:43","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T17:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on.php"},"modified":"2010-08-26T17:09:43","modified_gmt":"2010-08-26T17:09:43","slug":"western-wall-to-feature-new-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on","title":{"rendered":"Western Wall to Feature New One-way Partition Between Men, Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM (RNS) Jewish authorities at the Western Wall hope to
\nreplace the existing opaque partition that separates the men’s and
\nwomen’s prayer areas with one that will enable female worshippers to see
\ninto the men’s section but not vice-versa.
\nThe move follows years of complaints by female worshippers who have
\nbeen unable to see into the men’s section, even during family bar
\nmitzvahs. Currently, female relatives who want to see a bar mitzvah from
\nthe women’s section must stand on plastic chairs and peer over the top
\nof the tall barrier, called a mechitza.
\nMechitzas exist in all Orthodox synagogues because Jewish law
\nprohibits men and women from praying together. It also prohibits men
\nfrom seeing women during prayer.
\nTo help women feel more a part of the service, some synagogues have
\nerected partitions made of one-way mirrors.
\nWestern Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch said he and officials from the
\nWestern Wall Heritage Foundation have been trying to find a solution for
\nsome years now. Plans to install a mechitza made of one way mirrors were
\ndashed “when we discovered that, in direct sunlight, the one-way effect
\nis ineffective. In the sun, both sides are visible, the rabbi said.
\n“We are working with international experts to find or develop the
\nkind of glass we need,” Rabinovitch said, but declined to give a
\ntimetable.
\nRabinovitch told Ynet News that he is pushing the matter because of
\nthe obvious need to resolve the existing partition problem. “We, the
\nWestern Wall administration, will do whatever is needed to enable women
\nwho come … to watch the daily celebrations, out of a genuine will to
\nimprove the visiting experience,” he said.
\nWhile many Jews have hailed the foundation’s efforts as creative,
\nothers have noted Rabinovitch’s longstanding opposition to permitting
\nwomen to don prayer shawls or read from a Torah scroll at the Wall. His
\nposition was eventually adopted by Israel’s High Court of Justice.
\n— Michele Chabin
\nCopyright 2010 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of
\nthis transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written
\npermission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM (RNS) Jewish authorities at the Western Wall hope to replace the existing opaque partition that separates the men’s and women’s prayer areas with one that will enable female worshippers to see into the men’s section but not vice-versa. The move follows years of complaints by female worshippers who have been unable to see into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWestern Wall to Feature New One-way Partition Between Men, Women<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Western Wall to Feature New One-way Partition Between Men, Women\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JERUSALEM (RNS) Jewish authorities at the Western Wall hope to replace the existing opaque partition that separates the men’s and women’s prayer areas with one that will enable female worshippers to see into the men’s section but not vice-versa. The move follows years of complaints by female worshippers who have been unable to see into…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-26T17:09:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"aroan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Western Wall to Feature New One-way Partition Between Men, Women","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Western Wall to Feature New One-way Partition Between Men, Women","og_description":"JERUSALEM (RNS) Jewish authorities at the Western Wall hope to replace the existing opaque partition that separates the men’s and women’s prayer areas with one that will enable female worshippers to see into the men’s section but not vice-versa. The move follows years of complaints by female worshippers who have been unable to see into…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2010-08-26T17:09:43+00:00","author":"aroan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on","name":"Western Wall to Feature New One-way Partition Between Men, Women","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-08-26T17:09:43+00:00","dateModified":"2010-08-26T17:09:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c6e65092118456e72064bc1332984cfc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/08\/western-wall-to-feature-new-on#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Western Wall to Feature New One-way Partition Between Men, Women"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c6e65092118456e72064bc1332984cfc","name":"aroan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f35\/f3587d75a20cb88f1c76fd277ee82fc5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f35\/f3587d75a20cb88f1c76fd277ee82fc5x96.jpg","caption":"aroan"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/aroan"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}