Shmuel Rabinovitch escorts visiting heads of state and foreign dignitaries during visits to the Wall, and has published on the Jewish laws and customs of the Western Wall.
16 Facts About Shmuel Rabinovitch
2.
Shmuel Rabinovitch is the fourth occupant of the office; the first was Rabbi Yitzchak Avigdor Orenstein, who was installed by the British during Mandatory Palestine, the second was Rabbi Schechter, and the third was Getz.
3.
Shmuel Rabinovitch is responsible for maintaining the site as a sacred religious prayer space in the Jewish tradition.
4.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch navigates the Wall's use a religious prayer site with the interests of the civic programs of the secular Israeli state, visits by state dignitaries, religious leaders of other faiths, and diaspora liberal Jewish groups.
5.
Shmuel Rabinovitch has maintained the historic and traditional gender separation at the Wall, conforming to orthodox Jewish practice.
6.
In May 2008, Shmuel Rabinovitch requested that a delegation of Roman Catholic clergy not visit the Wall so long as they wore visible crosses.
7.
In 2009, Shmuel Rabinovitch declined the request of Pope Benedict XVI to clear the area of Jewish worshippers upon the pontiff's visit to the Western Wall.
8.
Shmuel Rabinovitch escorted US First Lady Laura Bush, together with Gila Katsav, wife of President of Israel Moshe Katsav, on a visit in 2005, and Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska, in 2011.
9.
In July 2008, Shmuel Rabinovitch accompanied US presidential candidate Barack Obama on a pre-dawn visit to the Wall.
10.
Shmuel Rabinovitch condemned the action of the seminary student for violating the privacy inherent in notes placed in the Wall.
11.
Shmuel Rabinovitch is the chairman of The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, a government-mandated organization which preserves and develops the Western Wall site and Western Wall Tunnel, as well as promotes the value of the site through education.
12.
Shmuel Rabinovitch has headed a public commission for environmental quality, and supervision and licensing of burials in Israel.
13.
Shmuel Rabinovitch is a former vice president of the Aleh Children's Home in Jerusalem.
14.
Shmuel Rabinovitch wrote the two-volume Sheilos u'Teshuvos Shaarei Tzion, describing the many halakhic questions that have arisen at the Western Wall and other holy sites.
15.
Shmuel Rabinovitch rules that burning is a "pure" way to deal with the notes, but burying them is more honorable.
16.
Shmuel Rabinovitch is the author of Minhagei HaKotel, a book on the history and customs of the Western Wall.