WUNRN
By Haaretz
Service - 12.07.10
ISRAEL - POLICE ARREST WOMEN OF THE WALL
LEADER FOR
PRAYING AT JERUSALEM WESTERN WALL WITH TORAH
SCROLL
Anat Hoffman, the Israeli women's prayer group leader, was
arrested for holding a Torah scroll in violation of a High Court ruling on
prayer at the Western Wall.
Jerusalem Police on Monday arrested the leader of the Women of
the Wall group for carrying a Torah scroll while praying at the Western Wall,
Army Radio reported.
Anat Hoffman, Chairwoman of
the Women of the Wall group, holds on to a Torah scroll as police attempt to
take it from her and detain her outside the Western Wall, July 12, 2010AP
1/6
Anat
Hoffman, the women's prayer group leader, was arrested and taken in for
questioning after she was caught holding a Torah scroll in violation of a High
Court ruling prohibiting women from reading the Torah at the Western Wall.
Dozens of Women of the Wall members arrived at the holy site on
Monday morning for the traditional festive prayer in honor of the first day of
the month of Av.
"This is another example of the ultra-Orthodox
establishment imposing its stances on the public," a spokeswoman for the
group said.
Women of the Wall has previously clashed with ultra-Orthodox
worshippers over the group's desire to pray at the Western Wall wrapped in
prayer shawls or wearing phylacteries, which some rabbis have called
provocations.
In November 2009, another of the group's women was arrested for
wearing a prayer shawl (tallit). At the time, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel
Rabinowitz said the act was a provocation meant to turn the wall into a
fighting ground.
"We must distance politics and disagreement from this
sacred place," Rabinowitz had said.
The Masorti Movement said in response to Hoffman's arrest:
"The arrest of the Women of the Wall chairwoman is a foolish act. The
Western Wall plaza belongs to the entire nation and the Haredim have
expropriated it."
Hoffman is one of the prominent activists of the Movement for
Progressive Judaism in
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