More Than Half a Million Worshippers Reportedly Attend Jerusalem Selichot Prayers
JERUSALEM, 5 September 2026 — More than half a million Jewish worshippers have reportedly visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall during this year’s Selichot prayer season, with extraordinary footage showing the historic plaza filled by a vast late-night congregation.
Selichot are special penitential prayers through which worshippers seek divine mercy and forgiveness ahead of the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
The services are traditionally conducted late at night or before dawn. Sephardic Jewish communities begin reciting the prayers during the Hebrew month of Elul, while Ashkenazi communities generally begin closer to Rosh Hashanah.
Videos circulating online show thousands of worshippers standing together at the Western Wall Plaza, also known as the Kotel, as prayers echo through the site.
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation previously reported that more than 50,000 people attended one of the season’s major overnight services on 28 August.
At that stage, cumulative attendance since the beginning of Elul had already exceeded 350,000. More recent material attributed to the foundation indicates that the cumulative number has since passed half a million.
The figure does not mean that 500,000 people were gathered at the wall simultaneously. It represents attendance across multiple services during the Selichot season.
The foundation planned 19 central Selichot services between the beginning of Elul and the eve of Yom Kippur, with tens of thousands expected at the largest gatherings.
The prayers centre on repentance, reflection and appeals for forgiveness as worshippers prepare for the holiest period of the Jewish calendar.
Footage of the gathering has attracted attention internationally, with viewers describing the sight of thousands praying together in the middle of the night as a powerful demonstration of faith.
