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| website = [http://womenofthewall.org.il/ womenofthewall.org.il]
| website = [http://womenofthewall.org.il/ womenofthewall.org.il]
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'''Women of the Wall''' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: נשות הכותל, ''Neshot HaKotel'') is a feminist<ref name="Hertzog2010">{{cite book|author=Esther Hertzog|title=Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=71SnYdunv1MC&pg=PA644|accessdate=10 June 2013|date=January 2010|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-3050-0|page=644|quote=The Women of the Wall believed themselves to be liberal feminists.}}</ref><ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/western-wall-resolve-prayer-rights Western Wall plan unveiled to resolve 24-year-old prayer rights dispute], The Guardian: "Women of the Wall, a feminist organisation that has been campaigning for the right to pray on equal terms to men at the site since 1988".</ref><ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/02/world/jewish-feminists-prompt-protests-at-wailing-wall.html Jewish Feminists Prompt Protests at Wailing Wall], ''New York Times'', (December 02, 1988)</ref> organization of mainly American born women based in [[Israel]] whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray aloud, read from the [[Torah]] and wear religious garments at the [[Western Wall]]. The group holds monthly prayer services for women on [[Rosh Hodesh]]. The service includes singing and Torah reading, with some of the women wearing a [[tallit]] and [[kippah]], which traditionally are considered male attire. These actions have upset members of the Orthodox Jewish community, sparking protests and arrests. In May 2013, after engaging in [[civil disobedience]] for over two decades, a judge ruled that a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling prohibiting women from carrying a Torah or wearing prayer shawls had been misinterpreted and that Women of the Wall prayer gatherings at the wall should not be deemed illegal.<ref name=civildisobedience/>
'''Women of the Wall''' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: נשות הכותל, ''Neshot HaKotel'') is a non-orthodox,<ref>[http://seattletimes.com/avantgo/2020862128.html Israeli court OKs non-Orthodox prayer by women at sacred wall], ''The Washington Post'', (April 16, 2013.</ref> feminist feminist<ref name="Hertzog2010">{{cite book|author=Esther Hertzog|title=Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=71SnYdunv1MC&pg=PA644|accessdate=10 June 2013|date=January 2010|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-3050-0|page=644|quote=The Women of the Wall believed themselves to be liberal feminists.}}</ref><ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/western-wall-resolve-prayer-rights Western Wall plan unveiled to resolve 24-year-old prayer rights dispute], The Guardian: "Women of the Wall, a feminist organisation that has been campaigning for the right to pray on equal terms to men at the site since 1988".</ref><ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/02/world/jewish-feminists-prompt-protests-at-wailing-wall.html Jewish Feminists Prompt Protests at Wailing Wall], ''New York Times'', (December 02, 1988)</ref> organization of mainly American born women based in [[Israel]] whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray aloud, read from the [[Torah]] and wear religious garments at the [[Western Wall]]. The group holds monthly prayer services for women on [[Rosh Hodesh]]. The service includes singing and Torah reading, with some of the women wearing a [[tallit]] and [[kippah]], which traditionally are considered male attire. These actions have upset members of the Orthodox Jewish community, sparking protests and arrests. In May 2013, after engaging in [[civil disobedience]] for over two decades, a judge ruled that a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling prohibiting women from carrying a Torah or wearing prayer shawls had been misinterpreted and that Women of the Wall prayer gatherings at the wall should not be deemed illegal.<ref name=civildisobedience/>


==History==
==History==

Revision as of 12:47, 19 June 2013

Women of the Wall
TypeNon-profit
PurposeWomen's rights advocacy
HeadquartersIsrael
Region served
Israel
Websitewomenofthewall.org.il

Women of the Wall (Hebrew: נשות הכותל, Neshot HaKotel) is a non-orthodox,[1] feminist feminist[2][3][4] organization of mainly American born women based in Israel whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray aloud, read from the Torah and wear religious garments at the Western Wall. The group holds monthly prayer services for women on Rosh Hodesh. The service includes singing and Torah reading, with some of the women wearing a tallit and kippah, which traditionally are considered male attire. These actions have upset members of the Orthodox Jewish community, sparking protests and arrests. In May 2013, after engaging in civil disobedience for over two decades, a judge ruled that a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling prohibiting women from carrying a Torah or wearing prayer shawls had been misinterpreted and that Women of the Wall prayer gatherings at the wall should not be deemed illegal.[5]

History

Women of the Wall was founded in December 1988 by North American women during the first International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem.[6] A group of approximately one hundred attendees praying in the women's section of the wall were verbally and physically assaulted by ultra-Orthodox Jews at the site. When the conference ended, a group of Jerusalem women continued to meet at the Kotel and formed Women of the Wall to assert their right to pray there without hindrance.[7] Women of the Wall has fought a legal battle asserting a right to conduct organized prayer at the Kotel and challenging government and private intervention in its efforts. After demanding police protection, the government was given nine months to make arrangments that would allow them to pray unhindered. At the end of this period, the Ministry of Religion ruled that only prayer according to the "custom of the place" was to be permitted and that "the sensitivities of other worshippers" must not be offended.[2] The Women of the Wall then petitioned the Supreme Court to recognise their right to pray at the Wall. A temporary ruling was given which stated that the stauts quo should be enforced until they reached a final verdict.[2]

A 2001 law made it illegal for women to perform these religious practices.[8]

The struggle has led to two Israeli Supreme Court decisions and a series of debates in the Knesset. In its first decision, on May 22, 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that it is legal for Women of the Wall to hold prayer groups and read Torah in the women's section of the main Kotel plaza undisturbed. Four days later, Haredi political parties including Shas introduced several bills to overturn the decision, including a bill that would have made it a criminal offense for women to pray in non-traditional ways at the Western Wall, punishable by up to seven years in prison.[7] Although the bill did not pass, the Israeli Supreme Court reconsidered its earlier decision. On April 6, 2003, the Court reversed itself and upheld, 5-4, the Israeli government's ban prohibiting the organization from reading Torah or wearing tallit or tefillin at the main public area at the Wall, on the grounds that such continued meetings represented a threat to public safety and order.[9] The Court required the government to provide an alternate site, Robinson's Arch.[10] Plans to construct a small prayer site at Robinson's Arch were unveiled in October 2003. WOW leader Anat Hoffman reacted harshly to the plan. "Now we're going to be praying at an archeological site, at an alternative site for the Jews of a lesser degree."[11] The site was inaugurated in 2004.[12]

Until recently, it was illegal for them to do so under Israeli law.[13]

In May 2013, after bowing to pressure from American liberal groups, the government issued a directive for the legal dispute to be solved. A subsequent Supreme Court ruling gave permission[14] for the Women of the Wall to hold services at the site after deciding that their prayer and ritual were not against the "local custom" and since the women did not use physical or verbal violence, they could not be held responsible for any resulting disturbances. Orthodox Jews however continue to view their presence as a provocation.[15]

They have the support of large American non-Orthodox denominations.[16] They also want to remove the control of the holy site from the hands of the Western Wall rabbi.[17]

Arrests

Several members of the group have been arrested for acts that Women of the Wall members say are legal under the Supreme Court ruling. Nofrat Frenkel was arrested for wearing a tallit under her coat and holding a Torah in November 2009.[18] She was not charged, but she was barred from visiting the Wall for two weeks.[19]

The group's leader, Anat Hoffman, was interrogated by the police in January 2010, fingerprinted, and told that she could be charged with a felony over her involvement with Women of the Wall. The questioning concerned WOW's December service, during which Hoffman said she did not do anything out of the ordinary.[20]

On July 12, 2010, Hoffman was arrested for holding a Torah scroll. She was fined 5,000 NIS and given a restraining order according to which she was not allowed to approach the Kotel for thirty days.[21]

On October 16, 2012, Hoffman was arrested again. She was accused of singing out loud and disturbing the peace, and was released from police custody the following day.[22] The following morning Lesley Sachs and board member Rachel Cohen Yeshurun were detained for "disturbing public order."[23] Hoffman described the ordeal: “In the past when I was detained I had to have a policewoman come with me to the bathroom, but this was something different. This time they checked me naked, completely, without my underwear. They dragged me on the floor 15 meters; my arms are bruised. They put me in a cell without a bed, with three other prisoners, including a prostitute and a car thief. They threw the food through a little window in the door. I laid on the floor covered with my tallit. I’m a tough cookie, but I was just so miserable. And for what? I was with the Hadassah women saying Sh’ma Yisrael.”[24]

On February 11, 2013, ten women who were part of WOW, including two American rabbis, were detained for praying at the wall and “as a result of them wearing the garments that they’re not allowed to wear specifically at that site.”[25] The women were barred from returning for 15 days.

In March 2013 five women were detained; they were subsequently released without restrictions when the judge ruled that they had not been responsible for creating a disturbance, ruling instead that it was the Orthodox protesters who were creating a disturbance.[26]

In May 2013, two weeks after a court ruling affirmed their right to pray at the Kotel, no women were arrested during their monthly organized prayer. Instead, of the thousands of Haredi women and men who gathered to protest and heckle the women, three Haredi men were arrested for disturbing the peace.[27]

Women of the Wall rationale

The Women of the Wall claim a right to worship at the Kotel in an organized fashion, and have presented their position in terms of equal rights for women, rights of religious liberty, and religion and state in Israel.

As Women of the Wall organizer Phyllis Chesler explained:

When a woman demands to be treated as a human being, even if she defines her humanity as (only) a "separate but equal" place at her Father's table, whether she's a "good" or a "bad" woman, she is viewed as a brazen revolutionary. We asked for our rights under civil and religious law. When we prayed, other worshipers, both men and women, verbally and physically assaulted us. We asked the Israeli state to protect us so that we could exercise our rights. The state claimed it could not contain the violence against us, and that we ourselves had provoked the violence by "disturbing/offending" the "sensibilities of Jews at worship." Women are not seen as "Jews" or as "worshipers" with "sensibilities."
What makes this line of reasoning difficult to swallow is that Israelis have continued to administer time-sharing access to the Cave of the Patriarchs at Hebron, a site holy to both Moslems and Jews, even after Baruch Goldstein shot 29 Moslems at prayer. Authorities could do as well on our behalf at the wall.
Many secular and otherwise enlightened people underestimate the psychological importance of organized religion. I am a liberation psychologist, engaged with the world's mental health. Therefore I know how important it is for both women and men, Jews and non-Jews, that women begin to claim sacred ground in spiritually autonomous and authoritative ways.[28]

Orthodox opposition

In a letter to the women, Rabbi Yehuda Getz of the Western Wall urged them to stop "straying from the hallowed traditions of generations of Jews before you."[29] In 1989, the Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapiro and the Religious Affairs Minister suggested that the women "pray individually, silently, and preferably at home-not at the wall."[30] In 1996, MK Israel Eichler wrote: "No one prevents anyone else from praying at the wall in his own fashion, but the wall is the last place to carry out a battle for the right of a woman to wear a tallit, read from the Torah, wear a kippa and grow a beard."[31]

The thrust of the Haredi and other Orthodox opposition to Women of the Wall praying as a group is their belief that Women of the Wall is motivated by a desire to make a political statement against traditional Judaism rather than a sincere desire to pray.[32] The influential Posek HaGaon Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ruled that women's prayer groups are permissible only when their motivations are deemed by the rabbis to be "sincere" and not influenced by feminism.[33] Some haredi opponents have claimed that the group's assembly is not in accordance with Orthodox halakha. According to Haredi Rabbi Avi Shafran, the group has also disobeyed the instructions of the Rabbi in charge of the Wall and of the Israeli Rabbinate.[34]

In "Trojan Horse at the Western Wall," an article first published in 2000, Rabbi Shafran wrote as follows:

The air of belligerence, too, that permeates the group’s directives to its followers bespeaks something considerably less rarefied than spiritual yearning. "Remember why you are doing this," writes Jesse [sic] Bonn, an Israeli member of the group offering "inspirational words" – "[because] Jewish women's voices, whether in polemics or prayer, will not be silenced..."
Even the language employed by the group’s spokesman is the language of war: "The struggle still lies before us... Armed with this legal declaration of our rights, we will be able to continue the fight..." [emphases added by Shafran], writes Danielle Bernstein, an Orthodox Jew, and Phyllis Chesler, a director of the women’s group’s board of directors.

In addition to opposition to group prayer, the haredi community also opposes the women's singing in the presence of men, reading from the Torah, and donning tallit and tefillin, ritual garments and objects traditionally associated with men.[35]

In 2009, Ovadia Yosef said: "There are stupid women who come to the Western Wall, put on a tallit (prayer shawl), and pray... These are deviants who serve equality, not Heaven. They must be condemned and warned of."[36]

In May 2013, a group of influential Religious Zionist rabbis issued a letter calling on public figures "not to let a small group offend the thousands of worshippers arriving to pray at this sacred place on a regular basis." They went on to state that "there are those who have been trying in recent years to change the present situation, offending many and tainting the special atmosphere of holiness of this sacred place."[37]

The widow of Chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu said the group had "gone completely mad" and their actions amount to "desecration."[38]

Women of the Wall have been attacked both physically and verbally by Haredi men and women.[39][40][41][27]

Public response

Susan Sered claims that many in Israel saw the group as "American Reform interlopers trying to appropriate a state symbol of national identity."[31]

In December 2012, following pressure from non-Orthodox US Jews,[42] Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, was asked by the Prime Minister to find a solution to the dispute.[43][5] In response to the detentions at the wall in February 2013, Sharansky said “When I listen to the very partial presentation, I am fully with them — when I listen to the other side, I have to accept that they also have logic. We do have to find a solution in which nobody will feel discriminated against."[25]

The arrests have been criticized by groups promoting religious pluralism in Israel. The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), condemned the arrest of Anat Hoffman and called it a "desecration of God's name."[44]

In late May, threatning graffiti was sprayed on the front door of an executive board member of the Women of the Wall organisation. It read: "Peggy, you're the first. We know where you live. Jerusalem is holy. The Western Wall will not be forfeited. The Women of the Wall are villains."[45]

A May poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that about half of the Israel public supports the Women of the Wall, and that men (51.5%) are more inclined to support the women’s prayer group than women (46%).[46]

In June, it was reported that Chief Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar had received death threats. The letters stated that if the Women of the Wall are not allowed to pray according to their ways and custom, "we will fight you with all measures, and you will return home with 100 bodies of haredim... We will no longer practice restraint. We will re-liberate the Western Wall." Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch had also received a similar letter. Women of the Wall said that the organization "had nothing to do with the act and that the style of these letters does not match the love of Israel spirit led by the group."[45]

See also

References

  1. ^ Israeli court OKs non-Orthodox prayer by women at sacred wall, The Washington Post, (April 16, 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Esther Hertzog (January 2010). Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology. Wayne State University Press. p. 644. ISBN 978-0-8143-3050-0. Retrieved 10 June 2013. The Women of the Wall believed themselves to be liberal feminists. Cite error: The named reference "Hertzog2010" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Western Wall plan unveiled to resolve 24-year-old prayer rights dispute, The Guardian: "Women of the Wall, a feminist organisation that has been campaigning for the right to pray on equal terms to men at the site since 1988".
  4. ^ Jewish Feminists Prompt Protests at Wailing Wall, New York Times, (December 02, 1988)
  5. ^ a b Rudoren, Jodi (December 25, 2012). "Israel to Review Curbs on Women's Prayer at Western Wall". The New York Times. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
  6. ^ Rosemary Skinner Keller; Rosemary Radford Ruether; Marie Cantlon (2006). Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America: Native American creation stories. Indiana University Press. p. 584. ISBN 978-0-253-34687-2. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  7. ^ a b Szymkowicz, Sarah. "Women Of The Wall". Jewish Virtual Library.
  8. ^ 'Women of the Wall' are detained praying at Kotel, JPost, Aug 19, 2012.
  9. ^ "The Israeli Supreme Court Denies Women The Right to Pray at the Western Wall", Findlaw. April 23, 2003
  10. ^ Backers of women’s prayer at wall weighing options after court ruling, Jewish Telegraph Agency, April 6, 2003
  11. ^ Krieger, Hilary Leila; Izenberg, Dan (31 October 2003). "Women of the Wall Wail Over New Prayer Site". The Jerusalem Post.
  12. ^ Sharon, Jeremy (22 May 2012). "Police Detain Women at Kotel Over Prayer Shawls". The Jerusalem Post.
  13. ^ Challenging Traditions at the Heart of Judaism, New York Times, December 21, 2009. "After a lengthy legal battle, the court ultimately ruled against the women in the interest of public order. Consequently, it is illegal for them to read aloud from the Torah or to wear prayer shawls openly by the wall."
  14. ^ Women win the right to pray like men at Jerusalem's Western Wall, Robert Tait, Daily Telegraph, (April 25, 2013) "Women's rights campaigners won a potential landmark legal victory after a judge ruled that they should be allowed to pray at the Western Wall, Judaism's most sacred site, in a manner previously deemed only fit for men."
  15. ^ Response of the Rabbi of the Western Wall to the Women of the Wall’s Provocative Act
  16. ^ Women and Orthodox Waver Over Plan for Egalitarian Prayer at Western Wall, Nathan Jeffay, Forward, (May 10, 2013}
  17. ^ Women of the Wall: The Controversy Continues, Israel Movement for Reform & Progressive Judaism, (March 18, 2013) "In January, 2013, WOW, the IMPJ and IRAC joined other organizations in filing a petition with the High Court of Justice against the prime minister and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, demanding that non-orthodox Jews and women receive equal representation for managing the Wall, and requested the court “remove the control of the holy site from the hands of the Western Wall rabbi."
  18. ^ Police Arrest Woman Praying at the Western Wall
  19. ^ The ‘Crime’ of Praying with a Tallit, and a Plea for Tolerance: First Person
  20. ^ Women of the Wall Leader Interrogated by Police
  21. ^ [1]
  22. ^ Women of the Wall website
  23. ^ http://972mag.com/breaking-3-women-arrested-while-praying-at-western-wall-in-last-24-hours/57856/
  24. ^ Sharon, Jeremy. "Police arrest Women of the Wall leader for singing." Jerusalem Post. 17 October 2012. 25 October 2012.
  25. ^ a b Rudoren, Jodi (11 February 2013). "Women Praying at Western Wall in Jerusalem Are Detained". New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  26. ^ Isabel Kershner, "Court Rules for Women in Western Wall Dispute", New York Times, 12 April 2013
  27. ^ a b "Haredim Heckle and Harass Women of the Wall during Prayer". The Jerusalem Post. 10 May 2013.
  28. ^ Claiming Sacred Ground: Women's eight-year struggle to pray out loud at "the Wailing Wall", On the Issues Magazine, Summer 1996
  29. ^ Esther Hertzog (January 2010). Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology. Wayne State University Press. p. 639. ISBN 978-0-8143-3050-0. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  30. ^ Esther Hertzog (January 2010). Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology. Wayne State University Press. p. 642. ISBN 978-0-8143-3050-0. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  31. ^ a b Susan Starr Sered (2000). What Makes Women Sick?: Maternity, Modesty, and Militarism in Israeli Society. UPNE. p. 138-139. ISBN 978-1-58465-050-8. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  32. ^ Trojan Horse at the Western Wall
  33. ^ Frimer, Arye and Dov, Women's Prayer Services Theory and Practice Tradition, 1998
  34. ^ Rabbi Avi Shafran, "Trojan Horse at the Western Wall" (opposition view)
  35. ^ Stonewalled, Haaretz
  36. ^ Rabbi Yosef condemns Women of the Wall
  37. ^ Zionist rabbis vs. Women of Wall, Kobi Nachshoni, ynet.com 9 May, 2013.
  38. ^ Rabbanit Tzviya Eliyahu: Women of the Wall are 'Crazy', Arutz Sheva, (June 06, 2013)
  39. ^ Phyllis Chesler, "Wailing at the Wall", On the Issues Magazine, Fall 1997
  40. ^ Chairs Thrown at Women of the Wall
  41. ^ Video recording of chairs being thrown at the Women of the Wall
  42. ^ Women of the Wall urge Jerusalem police to refrain from arrests at upcoming service, Haaretz, (April 10, 2013) "Under pressure from the non-Orthodox Jewish world, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Sharansky several months ago to draft .."
  43. ^ Western Wall plan unveiled to resolve 24-year-old prayer rights dispute, (10 April, 2013)
  44. ^ [2]
  45. ^ a b Chief rabbis threatened over Kotel war
  46. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/poll-half-of-israelis-support-women-of-the-wall.premium-1.523651

Further reading

  • Chesler, Phylis and Rivka Haut (editors). Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site. Jewish Lights Publishing (December 2002). A collection of 35 essays.
  • Haberman, Bonna Devora, “Women of the Wall: From Text to Praxis.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 13/1 (Spring 1997): 5-34.
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