… Ben-David does not mention that the trade-off for making Robinson’s Arch an official site of Reform and Conservative prayer makes the Western Wall officially a synagogue under haredi auspices, from which the women’s group prayer services we now hold regularly would be banned.

The deal would vastly empower the same haredi establishment which anathematizes any whose custom differs from theirs, including the modern Orthodox, and which makes marriage, divorce, conversion and much else nightmares here.

The deal is bad policy for Jewish women, including our Orthodox sisters, who will not participate in mixed, egalitarian services and who refuse to be marginalized at Robinson’s Arch. But it is bad policy even for those who wish the liberal movements recognized, because of the inestimable boost to haredi misogyny and contempt for other Jews that is intrinsic to the deal.