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Yom Kippur prayers in Tel Aviv can take place with partitions to separate genders, High Court rules

 
 Jews pray while activists protest against gender segregation in the public space during a public prayer on Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the holiest of Jewish holidays, September 25, 2023. (photo credit: ITAI RON/FLASH90)
Jews pray while activists protest against gender segregation in the public space during a public prayer on Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the holiest of Jewish holidays, September 25, 2023.
(photo credit: ITAI RON/FLASH90)

Justices Mintz, Grosskopf, and Kasher issued the High Court ruling, which stated that the Tel Aviv municipality is authorized to make arrangements for the Yom Kippur prayer.

Yom Kippur prayers in Meir Garden in Tel Aviv can take place with partitions to separate men and women, Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling was part of an appeal against the decision that prohibited how the prayer would be held.

Justices Mintz, Grosskopf, and Kasher issued the High Court ruling, which stated that the Tel Aviv municipality is authorized to make arrangements for the Yom Kippur prayer to separate based on gender using partitions at the request of the appellants.

The appellant, the Rosh Yehudi association, welcomed the decision, N12 reported. In their statement quoted by N12, they said, “Tel Aviv is part of the Jewish state, and those who wish to pray separately with a partition will be able to do so...Judaism is stronger than any municipal regulation and more than the unfortunate decision of the Tel Aviv municipality to exclude the traditional public and Judaism itself from the public sphere.”

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Previous tensions over separate Yom Kippur prayers in Tel Aviv 

Last year, confrontations broke out in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square on Yom Kippur as some congregants tried to set up partitions to separate men and women, which was banned at the time by the Tel Aviv municipality and the High Court because it was a public space.

 AN EGALITARIAN prayer service takes place during public prayer at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on Yom Kippur, Sunday.  (credit: ITAI RON/FLASH90)
AN EGALITARIAN prayer service takes place during public prayer at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on Yom Kippur, Sunday. (credit: ITAI RON/FLASH90)

Some groups petitioned the Tel Aviv courts to overrule the separation ban, but the High Court rejected the petitions.

When the prayer service began, protesters showed up to demonstrate against gender separation, and the disagreements devolved into fighting.

Reactions to the High Court ruling

Tel Aviv’s mayor, Ron Huldai, told residents to respect the High Court’s decision on the matter. In a statement to X/Twitter, he wrote, “The Municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa will respect the decision of the High Court and will allow the prayer in Meir Garden on Yom Kippur. I call on the residents of Tel Aviv to respect the verdict.”


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However, he criticized the decision, saying, “The High Court gave a hand to the exclusion of women in the public sphere and thus opened a slippery slope.”

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Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid wrote in a statement to X that he would respect the High Court ruling but said, “I call on the liberal public not to give the instigators of the rioters who initiated these prayers the quarrels they want.”

“Don’t go protest because that’s what they want; it’s better to ignore. Let them stay there alone, stuck with themselves.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also welcomed the High Court’s ruling, writing on X, “The Court’s decision is the most natural, correct, and appropriate decision. The judges did well to put the Tel Aviv municipality in their places.”

Gideon Sa’ar, who recently joined the government as minister-without-portfolio, wrote to X, “The High Court was right when it overturned the Tel Aviv Municipality’s unfathomable decision to prevent Jews from praying in public according to Israeli tradition on Yom Kippur.”

Ariella Marsden contributed to this report. 

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