A Million People Visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall During Holiday Season

About a million people visited the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Jewish high holiday season, according to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the governmental body responsible for administration of the Jewish holy site in Israel.  The number of visitors is the largest for a Jewish holiday period and comes a year after only a small number of worshippers were allowed at the site due to coronavirus restrictions. “The masses who visited the Western Wall testified in an impressive and strong way to the connection of the people of Israel to the Western Wall that unites us all, while preserving tradition and its sanctity,” the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said in a statement. Some hundreds of thousands of worshippers participated in selichot prayers at the wall, and visited during the Sukkot holiday, including for the popular Birkat Kohanim, or the Priestly Blessing, which was split over two days to limit crowd numbers. About 100 Torah scrolls were used at the Western Wall on this week’s Simchat Torah celebration at the Western Wall.