The Tel Aviv-based Rosh Yehudi Jewish outreach organization plans to hold Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) services in a public space in the city this year, after the municipality granted it a permit to do so. The permit was granted in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling last year permitting gender-segregated services at Meir Park.
On Thursday morning, Rosh Yehudi staff received a permit from the municipality to use the public park for prayer services on Yom Kippur eve between the hours of 5:30 p.m. and on the day of Yom Kippur between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
"We are expecting a large and calm prayer per the approval of the municipality and Supreme Court," Rosh Yehudi Chairman Yisrael Ze'ira told Ynet. "We invite the residents of the area to a unifying and uplifting prayer, as one person with one heart, in accordance with the municipality’s approval.”
The public prayer service has been at the center of controversy in past years. In 2023, major clashes broke out when anti-religious protesters attempted to disrupt the service and dismantle the makeshift partition, which the organizers had built using Israeli flags, after the municipality banned gender-segregated services in public.