Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz on Monday urged ultra-Orthodox Knesset members to pass legislation that would seemingly prevent the implementation of a compromise decision to establish an egalitarian prayer section at the southern expanse of the Kotel in Jerusalem, to which he was a central partner.

In a letter on Monday, Rabinowitz called on ultra-Orthodox party leaders to introduce legislation to maintain the status quo, annulling both the January 31 cabinet decision and a 2013 district court ruling to allow the Women of the Wall group to pray “in their way” at the main plaza – a reference to public reading of the Torah and wearing prayer shawls. […]

Attorney Yizhar Hess, executive director of the Masorti Movement in Israel, said, “I’m sorry for you, my brother Rabbi Rabinowitz. How friends, the Haredi party leaders, dumped you on the roadside. I repeat, changing the government decision will force us to sue in court for what we legally deserve – a third, mixed section at the Kotel itself.”