A recent innovation at Mini Israel allows visitors to leave notes in the cracks of its miniature Western Wall. The notes will be transferred to the real Western Wall in Jerusalem once a week.
Mini Israel CEO Haim Rogatka said that since the opening of the park, hundreds of thousands of visitors had stood in awe before the miniature Western Wall each year.
“It was as if they were standing before the true Western Wall in Jerusalem, the capital city,” Rogatka said.
Rogatka spoke of Mini Israel’s Satmar hassidic visitors, who cannot visit the real wall, and said, “They come to Mini Israel, to visit and admire the exact replicate of the original Western Wall.”
He said that the visiting public demanded replicating the Wall to it’s smallest detail, including leaving prayer notes between the wall’s stones, just like in Jerusalem.
Following much consultation, the park’s officials decided to complete the missing detail, and placed a box for prayer notes in the wall’s stone built square. Visitors will place notes between the stones from the side of the box, in order to give them a more authentic experience.
“We didn’t want it to feel like dropping an envelope into an ordinary box,” Rogatka explained.
Mini Israel employees promised to collect and convey the notes to Jerusalem weekly, and to place them between the cracks of the true Western Wall.