Israel’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday night against a ban on gender-separated Jewish prayer services in Tel Aviv’s public spaces during the holiday of Yom Kippur, local media reported.
“We order that the appellants will be allowed to hold the 5785 Yom Kippur prayers—the Kol Nidre and Ne’ila prayers—in the Meir Park area between Tchernichovsky and King George Street in Tel Aviv, at the hours requested by them,” the three-judge panel ruled, according to Ynet.
“Appellants will be permitted to hold prayers according to their religious practices, and for this purpose, they will be allowed to establish the necessary means in order to hold the prayers in this manner (including a partition for those worshippers who wish to hold the prayer separately between men and women),” the Supreme Court ruling added.
The Rosh Yehudi movement, which tries to spread Orthodox Judaism in Tel Aviv and petitioned the court alongside a dozen residents of the city, welcomed the court ruling, stressing that “Tel Aviv is part of the Jewish state” and “Yom Kippur is a holy day for the entire Jewish people.
“We are happy that the court permitted us to pray in our own manner, according to our faith and in accordance with the Jewish people’s traditions,” the NGO said. “Judaism is stronger than any municipal regulations or the Tel Aviv municipality’s ill-fated decision to exclude the traditional public, and Judaism itself, from the public sphere.”
Israeli Religious Services Minister Michael Malchieli, a member of the Sephardic haredi Shas Party, hailed the order as an “important decision.
“Last Yom Kippur, the Israeli people were torn amid the difficult images that came out of Tel Aviv, images that showed the peak of the rift within the people of Israel,” Malchieli stated. “Days later, the difficult war that we have been in for an entire year broke out, with attack after attack, our troops fighting on all fronts, and dozens of hostages in the Gaza Strip.
“Only with unity will we be able to defeat our external enemies,” he said.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) announced that he would “of course” respect the ruling. “Don’t go out to protest because that’s what they want,” Lapid urged his voters. “We will go to joint ceremonies of a tolerant, welcoming Judaism that respects the true Israeli tradition.”
‘A square with everybody’
Last year, radical secular protesters forcefully prevented Rosh Yehudi and its supporters from holding an outdoor Yom Kippur service with separate sections for men and women at the city’s Dizengoff Square.
Mayor Ron Huldai had barred the NGO from holding gender-segregated prayers. At the time, the High Court of Justice upheld the prohibition.
Seeking to uphold its traditional understanding of Jewish law while keeping in line with the court ruling, Rosh Yehudi instead constructed a makeshift barrier of Israeli flags between men and women.
Following the events on Yom Kippur, the Tel Aviv Municipality revoked Rosh Yehudi’s permits to hold public events during the Sukkot holiday.
At a Tel Aviv District Court hearing on Sept. 4, Judge Erez Yakuel instructed the parties to reach a compromise. “I want you to imagine a square with everybody—worshippers and seculars—who use the whole space as they see fit within the confines of the law,” the judge told the parties.
However, a municipal representative responded: “Sex-segregated prayer cannot be allowed to take place in the city.” Harel Arnon, a lawyer representing Rosh Yehudi, told the judge that the group is prepared to move the event to any place designated for it by local authorities.
On Tuesday, the municipality of Ramat Hasharon near Tel Aviv said it would also ban sex-separated Jewish prayer services in public spaces.
Rabbi Aviad Gadot, director of the Hotam nonprofit, condemned the ban. “The Ramat Hasharon municipality joins an extremist minority that seeks to suppress Jewish characteristics in the public space,” he stated.
Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, this year starts at sundown on Oct. 11, when millions worldwide gather for Kol Nidre.