Women of the Wall (Hebrew: נשות הכותל, Nashot HaKotel) 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.
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The Kotel is a central Jewish holy site, part of the retaining wall of the Temple Mount 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.[1]
Women of the Wall have been violently attacked both physically and verbally by Haredi men.[2][3][4] 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.[1] 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.[5] The Court required the government to provide an alternate site, Robinson's Arch.[6] The Robinson's Arch site was opened in October 2003, substantially after deadline, although it had not been completed.[7]
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.[8] She was not charged, but she was barred from visiting the Wall for two weeks.[9]
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.[10]
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.[11]
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:
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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15]
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.[16] All of these practices are prohibited by the Haredi authorities.
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..."[17]