Where is wailing wall

Violence has broken out there over the years, with Muslim worshippers occasionally hurling rocks and other projectiles from the mount above on Jewish worshippers below. Jewish groups have also contested the site, sometimes violently.

A Jewish feminist group, Women of the Wall, have for years protested the control the Orthodox rabbinate exerts at the site and their inability to conduct women-led services there, occasionally resulting in scuffles with Orthodox worshippers. The Israeli government has sought for years to resolve the issue, including building an alternative site for egalitarian prayer nearby, but tensions persist.

The first Reform , mixed-gender prayer service to ever take place at the Western Wall was held at this new space on February 25, In , the government reneged on the deal to create the new egalitarian prayer space and defied a Supreme Court request to reconsider the decision. The government decision was widely viewed as a response to the opposition of religious parties in the coalition.

Netanyahu reportedly feared his government might collapse if he allowed the creation of the prayer space and his partners pulled out of the coalition. The decision sparked an uproar outside Israel , especially among leaders of the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements in the United States. The issue was far less controversial among Israelis, who tend to either be observant or secular and do not affiliate in large numbers with the Reform or Conservative movements.

Instead, it was designated as a place of prayer less than five hundred years ago by a Muslim ruler. Yet, even if this place was not intrinsically holy let alone as holy as the Temple Mount , or even if it had not been so designated by Suleyman the Great, it has become sanctified over time as Jews have increasingly utilized it for prayer. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Photo courtesy of Jack Hazut, J. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library. Category » The Western Wall. Women of the Wall.

Notes in the Wall. The custom of worshiping at the Western Wall began during the Medieval period. In the 16th century, the wall and the narrow courtyard where people worship was located with the 14th century Moroccan Quarter. The Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent — set aside this section for the express purpose of religious observances of any kind. In the 19th century, the Ottomans allowed Jewish men and women to pray together on Fridays and high holy days.

They segregated themselves by gender: the men stood still or sat apart from the wall; while the women moved about and rested their foreheads against the wall. Beginning in , the Jewish users began bringing chairs and screens to allow the men and women to worship is separate cloisters in the narrow passageway, but the Ottoman rulers saw it for what it probably also was: the thin edge of the wedge to ownership, and banned such behavior. In , a riot occurred when some Jews attempted to build a temporary screen.

The Wailing Wall is one of the great Arab—Israeli struggles. Jews and Arabs still dispute who is in control of the wall and who has access to it, and many Muslims maintain that the Wailing Wall has no relation to ancient Judaism at all.

Sectarian and ideological claims aside, the Wailing Wall remains a sacred place for Jews and others who often pray—or perhaps wail—and sometimes slip prayers written on paper through the wall's welcoming fissures.

In July , Alon Nil launched a free service allowing people around the world to Twitter their prayers, which are then taken in printed form to the Wailing Wall. After the war of and the Arab capture of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, Jews were generally banned from praying at the Wailing Wall, which was at times defaced by political posters.

Israel annexed Arab East Jerusalem immediately after the Six Day War and claimed ownership of the city's religious sites. The site is open to all people and is the location of various ceremonies, such as military inductions and bar mitzvahs. The Western Wall is free and is open all day, year-round. Women and men should dress modestly in the Western Wall Plaza. To pray at the wall, women should have their legs and shoulders covered.

Men should cover their head. What visitors see today is only a small part of what existed during the Second Temple Period.