WUNRN
Women of the Wall - http://womenofthewall.org.il/ -
As Women of the
Wall, our central mission is to achieve the social and legal recognition of our
right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah
collectively and out loud at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Israel - Challenges for Jewish Women
to Pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. 25th Anniversary of Women of the Wall
- August 7, 2013
Israel - Women of the Wall - Video
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More Photos of Gender Protests at
Jerusalem Western Wall - Scroll down site of link below.
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----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
ListServe
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2012 11:42 AM
Subject: Israel - Women Activists Detained by Police When Praying at
Western Wall
WUNRN
A tallit (Hebrew: טַלִּית) - plural - tallitot, is a Jewish prayer shawl. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallit
Tefillin תפילין) 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 prayers. The
hand-tefillin, or shel yad, is placed on the upper arm, and the strap
wrapped around the arm, hand and fingers; while the head-tefillin, or shel
rosh, is placed above the forehead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tefillin
ISRAEL - "WOMEN OF THE
WALL" ACTIVISTS DETAINED BY POLICE WHEN PRAYING AT THE HOLY WESTERN WALL
IN JERUSALEM
By JEREMY SHARON - 08/19/2012
Photo: Marc
Marc
Israel Sellem /The
A member of the Women of the Wall group wears tefillin while making a prayer.
In the latest of several similar incidents, police
detained four women from the Women of the Wall activist organization at the
Western Wall plaza Sunday morning for wearing prayer shawls.
The women were questioned for more than two hours and
then brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, where they were served with a
restraining order forbidding them from entering the Western Wall plaza for 50
days.
Israeli law, upheld by the Supreme Court, stipulates that
it is forbidden to conduct a religious ceremony “contrary to accepted practice”
at a holy site, or one that may “hurt the feelings of other worshipers.”
This law is interpreted to include women performing
religious practices at the Western Wall traditionally done by men in Orthodox
Jewish practice, such as reading from a Torah scroll, wearing tefillin or a
tallit, or blowing a shofar.
Approximately 50 women from the organization assembled in
the women’s section of the plaza Sunday morning for the prayer service for the
new month, many of whom wore prayer shawls, or tallitot, traditionally worn by
men.
The four women who were detained were wearing black and
white or plain white tallitot, whereas the rest of the group were wearing more
colorful prayer shawls.
The police generally tolerate the wearing of the
decorative tallitot by women, and only take exception to women wearing the
black and white, blue and white or completely white shawls, which they view as
being the preserve of male worshipers.
Lorraine Skupsky, 62, was one of the women detained and
banned from the Western Wall plaza.
“It is disgraceful and reprehensible, and it was
abhorrent that women are denied equality in front of the Western Wall,” said
Skupsky, who immigrated to
When they refused, the four were detained.
In previous instances, women received restraining orders
of a week or 10 days plus a fine if they broke the restraining order.
Ben-Ruby said the severity of the restraining order shows
that the courts see the issue “in the same level of severity” as the police.
“It is not a law, it is a decision from 2003, the
decision of the High Court of Justice is that the women must behave according
to the customs of the site,” said Ben-Ruby. “The customs say men with tallit,
women without tallit. It is like a women putting on tefillin,” he said.
Ben-Ruby explained that the police will not detain women
who are not wearing a multicolored “women’s” tallit, draped around the neck.
They will only detain women who wear their tallit “like a man,” referring to
the more traditional black and white or blue and white prayer shawls worn
folded around the shoulders.
In a similar incident in June, a woman praying with the
Women of the Wall was detained and banned from the site for seven days for
wearing a black and white tallit, and another three women were briefly held,
also for wearing “male-style” prayer shawls.
Anat Hoffman, the chairwoman of Women of the Wall, denied
that the frequent incidents are designed to provoke media attention, despite
being aware of the legal issues, saying instead that the law is unjust.
“When Rosa Parks rode on the front of the bus it was illegal,”
Hoffman pointed out, referring to the famous civil rights activist in the
“This is a struggle to liberate the Western Wall from the
dictates of a small group of fanatic extremists which has taken over the site,”
Hoffman said, adding that efforts until now to change the law through
legislation in the Knesset have failed.
In response to the incident, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel
Rabinowitz issued a statement expressing “shock and deep sorrow for the
behavior of a group of women at the Western Wall this morning,” and called on
“the authorities to prevent this repetitive and provocative behavior.”
“Instead of uniting with the holiness of the place, we
are forced to be witnesses every month to an extremist political struggle of an
extremist and provocative group, which wants to harm the holiness of the site
and the feelings of the worshipers.
“The Western Wall is a place of unity for the Jewish
people and not a place for polarization, and the sharpening of differences.”