page_title: Wilson's Arch (Jerusalem)
section_title: Modern synagogue
hierarchical_section_title: Wilson's Arch (Jerusalem) / Modern synagogue
caption_attribution_description: English: Jerusalem, Western Wall, Synagogue, Torah Ark Deutsch: Jerusalem, Westmauer, Synagoge, Toraschrein
context_page_description: Wilson's Arch is the modern name for an ancient stone arch from Jerusalem, the first in a row of arches that supported a large bridge connecting the Herodian Temple Mount with the Upper City on the opposite Western Hill. The Arch springs from the Western Wall and is still visible underneath later buildings set against the Wall. The name Wilson's Arch is also used to denote the hall that it partially covers, which is currently used as a synagogue. This hall opens towards the Western Wall Plaza at the Plaza's northeast corner, so that it appears on the left of the prayer section of the Western Wall to visitors facing the Wall.
  The Arch once spanned 42 feet, supporting a bridge that carried both a street and an aqueduct. The bridge allowed access to a gate that was level with the surface of the Temple Mount during the late Second Temple period.
context_section_description: After the 1967 Six Day War, the space under the arch was transformed into a synagogue.
  In 2005, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation initiated a major renovation effort under Rabbi Rabinovich, then-rabbi of the wall ("Rabbi of the Kotel", as the title is usually referenced, using the Hebrew word for the Wall). Israeli workers renovated and restored the area for three years, strengthening the arch in preparation for access for visitors and use for prayer. Scaffolding remained in place for over a year to allow workers to remove cement that had been applied as patches over the stone. The restoration included additions to the men's section included a Torah ark that can house over one hundred Torah scrolls, in addition to new bookshelves, a library, and heating for the winter and air conditioning for the summer. There is also a new room built for the scribes who maintain and preserve the Torah scrolls used at the Wall.
   Speakers at the March 12, 2006 dedication ceremony included: President of Israel, Mr. Moshe Katzav, Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis, Rabbi Yona Metzger and Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the mayor of Jerusalem, Rabbi Uri Lupolianski, the chief rabbi of the Kotel, Rabbi Rabinovich, and the director of The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Rabbi Mordechai (Suli) Eliav.
  New construction also included a women's section and gallery, which was dedicated on May 25, 2006, a little more than two months after the March dedication ceremony. This addition creates a woman's section to allow separate seating during worship services and special events conducted within the Wilson's Arch prayer area, including Bar Mitzvah ceremonies, and advertisements for special programs such as the middle-of-the-night prayers climaxing the six-week "Shovavim" period have made a point of reminding women that this new area exists. According to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, this new construction allows women for the first time to "take part in the services held inside under the Arch." On May 14, 2008, United States First Lady Laura Bush visited the new women's section during her visit to Israel.
  On July 25, 2010, a Ner Tamid, an oil-burning "eternal light," was installed within the prayer hall within Wilson's Arch, the first eternal light installed in the area of the Western Wall. According to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, requests have been made for many years that "an olive oil lamp be placed in the prayer hall of the Western Wall Plaza, as is the custom in Jewish synagogues, to represent the menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem as well as the continuously burning fire on the altar of burnt offerings in front of the Temple, especially in the closest place to where they used to stand."
caption: Torah Ark inside men's section of Wilson's Arch.
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