Nations’ Ninth of Av: Changing sadness to joy

Coming at the end of a three-week period of austerity, the day commemorating the destruction of both Jewish temples is observed as a day of fasting.
Israeli Cabinet boosts funds for Kotel infrastructure

Plan approved to add $16.5m. to the five-year budget for the Western Wall.
Ivanka Trump criticized on social media for Western Wall visit

The visit triggered invective against her for praying at the Jewish site and for converting to Judaism.
Woman strips at Western Wall, apparently in protest of shelved Shas bill

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrapped the controversial legislation the same day it was announced.
Western Wall rabbi tells European envoys: Jews don’t need your approval

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi of the Western Wall, chastised United Nations diplomats from four countries who refused to visit the sacred site, in an open letter on Friday. The ambassadors of Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Moldova withdrew from a group visit to the Western Wall a week ago when the European Union ordered member-state […]
Israeli Lawmaker protests Western Wall ‘violation’: Prostrates on Knesset floor reciting Psalms [Watch]

“We greatly regret the difficult events that occurred at the Western Wall this morning, following the decision of MK Gilad Kariv to take a Sefer Torah into the women’s section of the site, in direct contravention of a clear ruling issued by the Justice Ministry,” the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said in a statement.
Haley on solidarity mission: ‘The people of Israel always celebrate life’

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is visiting the Jewish state with evangelical leader Pastor John Hagee.
Major rabbis hold prayer vigil at Kotel to oppose LGBT agenda of new government

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Tzfat, led a prayer vigil in response to the swearing-in of a controversial “unity government”.
On Eastern Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah and Israel

East and West are not simple geographic terms as they are in the United States.
On Rosh Chodesh, a Rabbi Went to the Western Wall …

And used his immunity as a Knesset member to smuggle a Torah scroll into a Reform gathering as a favor and an act of identification.