A Response from the Israeli Embassy

Several congregants took the opportunity to write a letter to Michael Oren, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States in Washington, DC. This is the response that they received. I found it terse and unhelpful, to say the least.

Most notably, it seems to be a threat to those who would violate the law when praying at the Kotel. Two of the things to clarify about the letter are that it misses the specific complaints of Women of the Wall: 1) The area on the other side of Robinson's Arch has not been set up as an equivalent to what is now at the Kotel. Not only are there no tables for reading Torah, but the ground is not even leveled. And, as noted by WoW, anyone who enters after a certain time in the morning is charged for museum entrance, as the area is actually an archeological site. 2) There is no status quo at the Kotel. Certainly since I lived there in 1993-4, more and more strictures have been added. Now there are separate security lines so that men on their way to the Kotel do not even have to see women. Those who accost WoW worshipers have become increasingly confrontational and lesser and lesser provocations. None of this is recognized in this letter.