Jewish Federations of North America

By: Michele Chabin — JERUSALEM (RNS) American Jews are celebrating an Israeli government decision to greatly expand — and fund — a pluralistic egalitarian prayer section adjacent to the Western Wall plaza as a first step toward official Israeli recognition of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism. The Western Wall, or Kotel, the holiest site in Judaism after the Temple Mount, is a remnant of the second Jewish Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in the…