By Ron Kampeas · December 28, 2012

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Three U.S. Jewish groups welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initiative to seek to review restrictions on women’s prayer at the Western Wall.

“It’s a really important development,” Mark Pelavin, a senior advisor to Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs. “It’s the first time the prime minister has recognized that the status quo is problematic. It’s the beginning of a much more serious conversation about women in israel

Netanyahu this week asked the Jewish Agency and its chairman, Natan Sharansky, to come up with solutions to ensure that women are welcome at the Western Wall.

In 2003, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a government ban on women donning religious garments or reading from a Torah scroll while at the Wall, saying that such meetings represented a threat to public safety and order. The court required the government to provide an alternate place for women to pray, and the Robinson’s Arch site was opened that year.

Women, including activist Anat Hoffman, who attempt to pray at the Western Wall while wearing their tallit and tefillin, have been arrested.

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, said it would support “Israel in its efforts to work toward ensuring women’s equality and religious pluralism both in the most sacred moment of prayer at the Western Wall and throughout life in Israel.”

Hadassah president Marcie Natan said her movement “hopes that a resolution can be reached which will allow all women to pray, individually and collectively, at the Kotel freely, without harassment, and in accordance with their own religious practices.”

The National Council of Jewish Women said Netanyahu’s initiative should not delay the implementation of a solution or allow arrests of women who pray at the Western Wall to continue.

“It is clear the dispute over the Wall has the potential to drive a wedge between Israel and her supporters abroad, but the focus for the inquiry must remain on finding a way to allow access that respects gender equality and religious diversity,” NCJW CEO Nancy Kaufman said in a statement. “The Wall cannot continue to be the purview of only one religious perspective.”

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