Biden Administration Dictates Religious Policy to Israel at Jewish Holy Site

The Biden administration is dictating religious policy to Israel over the delicate question of mixed-gender prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism.

U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain, who happens to be Muslim, tweeted on behalf of the administration Sunday that the U.S. supports the implementation of an expansion of the space for egalitarian — i.e. mixed — prayer at the Wall.

I visited the Western Wall for the first time today and met with Rabbi of the Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz. I reiterated U.S. support for implementation of the 2016 Western Wall agreement to expand the egalitarian space at the Wall. pic.twitter.com/BQXKrVlaTr

— U.S. Ambassador at Large Rashad Hussain (@IRF_Ambassador) April 16, 2023

In traditional, or “Orthodox,” Judaism, men and women pray separately, and men lead the services. Since only men are religiously obligated to pray, the space allocated to men is larger than the women’s section at the Wall.

In other Jewish denominations, such as “Reform,” men and women pray together, and women often lead services. Reform is the largest Jewish denomination in the U.S., but is smaller in other parts of the world.

(In Islam, men and women also pray separately, except at the Kaaba in Mecca. There is no egalitarian prayer at other Muslim holy sites, including at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which sits above the Western Wall.)

The Western (or Wailing) Wall is the surviving remnant of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70. Many Jews avoid praying on the Temple Mount itself — which is a Muslim holy site today — for fear of accidentally stepping on the Holy of Holies, the spot where the presence of God is believed to have dwelt, and which was entered only by the High Priest on the annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

The issue of egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall is one of the most complicated religious debates in Israel. Proponents argue that the site should be more open to the diversity of Jewish denominations. Opponents say egalitarian prayer violates Jewish tradition and therefore is inappropriate at the site.

A 2016 plan by the Israeli government to expand a small egalitarian prayer section at the Wall was dropped, under pressure, a year later.

The Biden administration’s attempt to dictate religious policy to Israel is only the latest effort by President Joe Biden to wade into domestic political issues. The administration has backed opposition protests against the Israeli government’s proposed judicial reforms, and President Biden has refused to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the latter’s election last November — an extraordinary snub of a democratic leader.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents Congress, and the government more generally, from making religious laws and policies, but the Biden administration appears to believe that it has the power to express a view on internal religious debates in a foreign country.

However, there is no comparable White House policy on egalitarian prayer at Muslim holy sites or the religious sites of other faiths, in Israel or elsewhere.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.