Women Of The Wall
Encyclopedia
Women of the Wall is an organization based in Israel
, whose goal is to secure women's right to hold and read the Torah and to wear religious garments at the Western Wall
. They have organized a series of Women's prayer groups at the Kotel (Western Wall)
each month on Rosh Hodesh. The group prays in a traditional service, and includes women reading from the Torah
and wearing tallit
, tefillin
, and kippah
. Because of laws and social attitudes regarding women praying at the Wall, members of the group have been assaulted by other worshipers and arrested by Kotel police.
on which the Second Temple
stood before the Romans
destroyed it in 70 CE. Currently, it is in the control of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel
and a special police force led by Chief of Police of the Kotel, Rafael Malichi.
Women of the Wall was founded in December 1988 during the first International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem. A group of approximately one hundred attendees went to pray in the women's section of the Wall, and were verbally and physically assaulted by ultra-Orthodox men and women there. After the conference was over, a group of Jerusalem women continued to pray at the Kotel frequently, suffering continual abuse; they eventually formed the Women of the Wall. After one incident, WOW filed a petition to the Israeli government; the government did not agree to the group's proposal, and included as response a list of halachic opinions that ban women from praying in groups, touching a Torah scroll, and wearing religious garments. Most Jews, even many Orthodox Jews, do not agree with these opinions; supporters of the WOW note that, according to Jewish law, a Torah scroll can never become ritually impure, even if a woman touches it.
Women of the Wall have been violently attacked both physically and verbally by Haredi men. As a result, 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. Their struggle ultimately led to two Israeli Supreme Court decisions and to 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. 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. The Court required the government to provide an alternate site, Robinson's Arch
. The Robinson's Arch site was opened in October 2003, substantially after deadline, although it had not been completed.
Nofrat Frenkel was arrested for wearing a tallit under her coat and holding a Torah in November 2009. She was not charged, but she was barred from visiting the Wall for two weeks.
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.
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.
As Women of the Wall organizer Phyllis Chesler
explained:
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. 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.
In "Trojan Horse at the Western Wall," an article first published in 2000, Rabbi Shafran wrote as follows:
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. All of these practices are prohibited by the Haredi authorities.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, whose goal is to secure women's right to hold and read the Torah and to wear religious garments at the Western Wall
Western Wall
The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel is located in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount...
. They have organized a series of Women's prayer groups at the Kotel (Western Wall)
Western Wall
The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel is located in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount...
each month on Rosh Hodesh. The group prays in a traditional service, and includes women reading from the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
and wearing tallit
Tallit
A tallit pl. tallitot is a Jewish prayer shawl. The tallit is worn over the outer clothes during the morning prayers on weekdays, Shabbat and holidays...
, tefillin
Tefillin
Tefillin also called phylacteries are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, which are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. Although "tefillin" is technically the plural form , it is loosely used as a singular as...
, and kippah
Kippah
A kippah or kipa , also known as a yarmulke , kapele , is a hemispherical or platter-shaped head cover, usually made of cloth, often worn by Orthodox Jewish men to fulfill the customary requirement that their head be covered at all times, and sometimes worn by both men and, less frequently, women...
. Because of laws and social attitudes regarding women praying at the Wall, members of the group have been assaulted by other worshipers and arrested by Kotel police.
History
The Kotel is a central Jewish holy site, part of the retaining wall of the Temple MountTemple Mount
The Temple Mount, known in Hebrew as , and in Arabic as the Haram Ash-Sharif , is one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been used as a religious site for thousands of years...
on which the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
stood before the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
destroyed it in 70 CE. Currently, it is in the control of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel
Chief Rabbinate of Israel
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is recognized by law as the supreme halakhic and spiritual authority for the Jewish people in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Council assists the two chief rabbis, who alternate in its presidency. It has legal and administrative authority to organize religious...
and a special police force led by Chief of Police of the Kotel, Rafael Malichi.
Women of the Wall was founded in December 1988 during the first International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem. A group of approximately one hundred attendees went to pray in the women's section of the Wall, and were verbally and physically assaulted by ultra-Orthodox men and women there. After the conference was over, a group of Jerusalem women continued to pray at the Kotel frequently, suffering continual abuse; they eventually formed the Women of the Wall. After one incident, WOW filed a petition to the Israeli government; the government did not agree to the group's proposal, and included as response a list of halachic opinions that ban women from praying in groups, touching a Torah scroll, and wearing religious garments. Most Jews, even many Orthodox Jews, do not agree with these opinions; supporters of the WOW note that, according to Jewish law, a Torah scroll can never become ritually impure, even if a woman touches it.
Women of the Wall have been violently attacked both physically and verbally by Haredi men. As a result, 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. Their struggle ultimately led to two Israeli Supreme Court decisions and to a series of debates in the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
. In its first decision, on May 22, 2002, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...
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
Shas
Shas is an ultra-orthodox religious political party in Israel, primarily representing Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredi Judaism.Shas was founded in 1984 by dissident members of the Ashkenazi dominated Agudat Israel, to represent the interests of religiously observant Sephardic and Mizrahi ...
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. 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. The Court required the government to provide an alternate site, Robinson's Arch
Robinson's Arch
Robinson's Arch is the name given to an arch that once stood at the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount. It was built during the reconstruction of the Second Temple initiated by Herod the Great at the end of the 1st century BCE. The massive stone span was constructed along with the retaining...
. The Robinson's Arch site was opened in October 2003, substantially after deadline, although it had not been completed.
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. She was not charged, but she was barred from visiting the Wall for two weeks.
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.
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.
Women of the Wall arguments
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
Phyllis Chesler
Phyllis Chesler is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island...
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.
Haredi arguments
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. The influential PosekPosek
Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists....
HaGaon
Gaon (Hebrew)
Gaon originally referred in Ancient Hebrew to arrogance and haughty pride . Later became known as pride in general: whether good or bad . Today it may refer to:...
Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek , who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme halakhic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America during his lifetime...
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. Some haredi opponents have claimed that the group's assembly is not in accordance with Orthodox halakha. According to Haredi Rabbi Avi Shafran
Avi Shafran
Abraham Shafran is a Haredi rabbi who serves as the Director of Public Affairs for Agudath Israel of America and who is Editor-at-Large of Ami . Agudath Israel was established to meet the needs and viewpoint of many Haredi Jews, while Ami, launched on November 24, 2010, promises to serve a broader...
, the group has also disobeyed the instructions of the Rabbi in charge of the Wall and of the Israeli Rabbinate.
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
Torah reading
Torah reading is a Jewish religious ritual that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the Torah scroll from the ark, chanting the appropriate excerpt with special cantillation, and returning the scroll to...
, and donning tallit
Tallit
A tallit pl. tallitot is a Jewish prayer shawl. The tallit is worn over the outer clothes during the morning prayers on weekdays, Shabbat and holidays...
and tefillin
Tefillin
Tefillin also called phylacteries are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, which are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. Although "tefillin" is technically the plural form , it is loosely used as a singular as...
, ritual garments and objects traditionally associated with men. All of these practices are prohibited by the Haredi authorities.
American response
The events surrounding the arrests of different members of WOW brought about an outcry from groups promoting religious pluralism in Israel. The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), issued a statement strongly condemning the arrest The CCAR said its members "...look with shock and revulsion at today's arrest of Anat Hoffman... We view her arrest, interrogation and subsequent ban from visiting the Western Wall for a month... a desecration of God's name..."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.
- Katzir, Yael. Praying in Her Own Voice. Documentary film. New Love Films: 2007. 60 minutes.
- Lederman, Faye. "Women of the Wall". Documentary film. 31 Minutes. New Day Films.
- Szymkowicz, Sarah. Women Of The Wall. Jewish Virtual Library.
- Haberman, Bonna Devora, “Women of the Wall: From Text to Praxis.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 13/1 (Spring 1997): 5-34.
External links
- Women of the Wall Official website
- "Women of the Wall" Virtual Jewish Library
- Cherney, Ben. "Kol Isha" JHCS 10, 57-75 (pdf) Orthodox debate on kol isha, women singing in the presence of men