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Women worshippers attacked by ultra-Orthodox men at Western Wall

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:10:00 +0000

A group of male Haredi protestors at Jerusalem's Western Wall on Friday morning spit, threw garbage and shouted abuse at the Women of the Wall, a feminist group of female worshippers. In addition to injuries sustained by the praying women, two police officers were treated at the scene. The incident ended with the arrest of three of the ultra-Orthodox men.

The Jewish holy site has been a scene of reoccurring unrest as women defend their right to worship freely. As Salon previously noted, an Israeli court ruled last month that there was no halachik (legal interpretation of the Talmud) reason to prevent women from praying at the holy site while wearing prayer shawls and reading aloud from the Torah

But the court ruling has not put an end to clashes between female worshipers and Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, as the Jerusalem Post reports:

Israeli court: Women can wear prayer shawls while worshiping at the Western Wall

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:58:00 +0000

In a major victory for feminist religious group Women of the Wall (and for all women who want to worship freely at one of Judaism's holiest sites), an Israeli court ruled on Thursday that women could pray at the Western Wall while wearing prayer shawls.

The decision comes after a series of clashes between female worshipers and the Orthodox rabbis who manage the Wall according to a strict interpretation of Jewish law. The rabbis' enforcement of Orthodox tradition barred women from wearing tallit (prayer shawls), reading aloud from the Torah and entering certain areas around the Wall, all of which significantly restrict women’s ability to pray. Women were often arrested for defying these restrictions.

But the court ruled on Thursday that their presence did not pose a threat and did not violate "local custom," as the Washington Post reports:

Is a more egalitarian Western Wall coming soon?

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:10:00 +0000

For months, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky has been working to broker a compromise between Jewish women who want to pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall and the ultra-Orthodox rabbis who have called their presence an “abomination.”

And a compromise may be on its way, as Jane Eisner at Forward reports:

If implemented, the proposal, a product of months of deliberation, would mark a dramatic acknowledgement by the state of Israel that prayer at the Wall — regarded as Judaism’s holiest site and a modern-day symbol of national sovereignty — should include non-Orthodox practice in which men and women pray together. But it is uncertain whether the proposal will satisfy Women of the Wall, who for years have tried to hold full prayer services in the women’s only section and may see this compromise as a betrayal of their mission...

Under the proposal, sources said, the area now known as Robinson’s Arch on the southern end of the Wall will be greatly expanded to create a prayer space roughly equivalent to the existing men’s and women’s sections. Egalitarian prayer is currently permitted at the Arch, which is an archaeological site, but that prayer is only available at limited times and with an entrance fee. The expectation is that the enlarged space would be free and open around the clock, as the Kotel is now, but that could not be confirmed.

The plan also calls for the plaza surrounding the Wall to expand, so that visitors approaching the site in the Old City could clearly chose between praying at the egalitarian section, or the existing sections reserved only for men and for women. Still under discussion is governance of the new prayer area, but several sources said that they thought it would be run by something other than the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the organization that currently controls the Kotel.

Women of the Wall head Anat Hoffman has signed off on the proposal while expressing her reservations about its "separate but equal" premise, but the measure still requires approval from the Netanyahu government, "where it may face resistance from Orthodox groups unwilling to share authority over the holy site," Eisner notes.

h/t Adam Chandler at Tablet Magazine

Israeli women reclaim the Western Wall

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:39:00 +0000

JERUSALEM — A group of Jewish women gathered in prayer Monday at the Western Wall to mark Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the new lunar month.

Even as they gathered to pray, police closed in. The women fell to the ground, unwilling to be dragged away.

Police did not want to be seen apprehending women at prayer, so they stepped back, waiting. Only after the service ended did police arrest 10, including three American rabbis: Robyn Fryer Bodzin, Debra Cantor and Susan Silverman, sister of famed comedienne Sarah Silverman.

Their crime? Being women wearing traditionally male religious garb at what is considered the holiest of Jewish sites.

The Western Wall is the last remnant of the original Temple of King Solomon, destroyed during the Babylonian invasions. It has been mentioned in Jewish texts since the fourth century and has, under the Law of Holy Places, been de facto designated as an Orthodox synagogue where the sexes pray separately.