I was quite surprised to read Robert
Lichtman’s article supporting “compromise” at the Kotel (“The Common Sense Case for Implementing the Kotel Compromise,” March 3, 2022.)

First of all, a section at the Kotel has already been designated for mixed prayer. It is barely used. Passing by on the way to the Kotel on Tisha B’Av a few years ago, we looked down to see it totally empty.

But more importantly, Lichtman seems naive to the fact that the demands of the non-Orthodox activists will not stop once they have won the right to pray “their way” at the Kotel. On their agenda, parallel to the right to commit chillul Hashem at the Kotel, is a change to conversion and marriage laws, and kashrut supervision. Mixed prayer is only the beginning of their anti-Torah agenda.

No one is ever stopped from praying at the Kotel, as long as it is done in the custom of the place. There is no “my Judaism “ and “their Judaism.” There is the Torah, with the same standards for all.

I have heard Anat Hoffman speak. She does not hide the fact that her goal is the elimination of halacha in all areas of Israeli life. Don’t be fooled into thinking that her “Women of the Wall” is a religious organization. It is the Israeli fundraising arm of the American Reform movement. As long as Hoffman can show how she’s making inroads against the “Orthodox,” the money flows in. The holiness of the Kotel must not be subject to change by those who have already deemed halacha optional.

M. Greenberg