Stories of the Kotel
Stories, traditions and daily life at the Western Wall — told from Jerusalem.
Presidents, popes, princes: the public figures who came to place a note in the Wall
From John Paul II to Trump, from Obama's note published against his will to Gorbachev and Milei — what the visits of the world's most powerful say about the force of a simple piece of paper.
Read the story GuideWhat happens to the note you place in the Western Wall?
Who reads them? (No one.) Where do they go? (Into the earth, on the Mount of Olives.) What language should you write in? The complete guide to the prayer note at the Kotel.
Read the guide TraditionThe segulah of 40 days at the Western Wall
Forty consecutive days of prayer for a single request: the origins of the Kotel's best-known segulah, the meaning of the number 40, and how to fulfil it even far from Jerusalem.
Read the article Life at the WallA day at the foot of the Wall: 24 hours in the life of the Kotel
From the vatikin at dawn to the students of the night, by way of Monday morning's bar mitzvahs: the Western Wall never sleeps. The story of an ordinary day.
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