ISRAEL: POLICE DISPERSE CONSERVATIVE AND REFORM JEWS FROM JERUSALEM'S WESTERN WALL WHO PRAY IN DEFIANCE OF ULTRA-ORTHODOX WORSHIPPERS

Record ID: 399775

  • Title: ISRAEL: POLICE DISPERSE CONSERVATIVE AND REFORM JEWS FROM JERUSALEM'S WESTERN WALL WHO PRAY IN DEFIANCE OF ULTRA-ORTHODOX WORSHIPPERS
  • Date: 11th August 1997
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (AUGUST 11, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV OF WESTERN WALL 0.05 2. SV MEMBERS OF THE CONSERVATIVE AND REFORM STREAMS SINGING 0.13 3. SV PEOPLE ARGUING/ PUSHING EACH OTHER 0.27 4. SV POLICE PUSHING AWAY THE CONSERVATIVE JEWS (2 SHOTS) 1.06 5. SV CONSERVATIVE JEWS ARGUING WITH THE POLICE 6. POLICE PUSHING AWAY THE
  • Embargoed: 26th August 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA3JAF23G91GU17PBZ71GORK6NM
  • Story Text: Israeli police have evicted about 200 Conservative and Reform Jews from the area of Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine, after they gathered to pray in defiance of ultra-Orthodox worshippers.

    The gathering of men and women to pray together, regarded by Orthodox Jews as an abomination, took place on Monday evening (August 11), shortly after the start of the fast day of Tisha B'Av, one of the most solemn days in the Jewish calendar.

    Police forced the group out of the plaza in front of the Wall after ordering them to disperse.

    Several people, including children and teenagers, wept and sang peace songs as police jostled them down a hill.

    Ultra-Orthodox Jews who looked on hurled curses and insults at the group, some of them shouting for a "Jewish war".

    Police said they broke up the gathering, organised by Conservative Jews, because the worshippers had defied rules on segregated prayer at the Wall.

    There were no injuries or arrests.

    Tisha B'Av marks the anniversary of the destruction of the First and Second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem.

    The Western Wall, an outer retaining wall that remains from the Second Temple, draws thousands of people for the start of Tisha B'Av, when observant Jews recite dirges and laments.

    Orthodoxy is the most religiously stringent of Jewish streams and the dominant one in Israel although not worldwide.

    Conservative and Reform Jews have sought and so far failed to exercise a right to worship at the Wall in their own way.


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