News Brief

Religious Jews sacrificed a paschal goat outside Jerusalem’s Old City after being turned away from the Temple Mount. Dozens of members of the messianic Temple Mount Faithful attended Monday’s ceremony on the Mount of Olives, in which a goat was sacrificed in accordance with Jewish law and divided up to be eaten at the evening Passover seder. The Temple Mount Faithful want to bring in the messianic era by building the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Police routinely reject the group’s requests to hold religious rites on the Temple Mount, fearing Muslims would see it as a provocation. Traditionally, Jewish practice calls for a paschal lamb to be sacrificed at Passover, but goats are an acceptable alternative. This practice is generally no longer acceptable to most Jews.