Knesset synagogue reopens, with tiny women’s section

The Knesset on Monday unveiled its newly renovated synagogue, which included a women’s section some one-eighth the size of the men’s.

Half an hour before sunset on Monday, there were half a dozen men in the prayer space, and no women. The men’s section has dozens of chairs. In the women’s section, partitioned off by a six-foot curtain, there are seven chairs set up, with a maximum capacity of perhaps 15-20.

A Knesset spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the size of the women’s section. It was not immediately clear whether it, too, had been expanded in the renovation.