Freedom of Religion at the Western Wall

Jewish religious movements

The significance of the western wall in Judaism

Introduction

Judaism includes different groups which have developed among Jews from ancient times and especially in the modern era among Jews living in Anglophone countries.

Historically, the division of Jews in many Western countries into denominations, includes three large groups known as Orthodox, Conservative and Reform

Jewish religious movements

Jewish religious movements

Judaism

Orthodox

Modern Orthodox

Haredi Orthodox 

Reform Conservative

Orthodox Judaism is the approach to religious Judaism which adheres to the interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts.

Conservative Judaism (known as Masorti Judaism outside the USA) is a moderate sect that seeks to avoid the extremes of Orthodox and Reform Judaism. Conservative Jews wish to conserve the traditional elements of Judaism while also allowing for reasonable modernization and rabbinical development.

Reform Judaism is the most liberal branch of modern Judaism. In an attempt to adapt to the social, cultural, and political situation of the modern world, Reform Judaism has either abandoned or changed many of the traditional Jewish religious observances. 

Jewish religious movements

The Western Wall is the most holy place accessible to the Jewish people. It is located in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount.It is a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard.

The significance of the western wall in Judaism

Women of the Wall is a non-profit organization with a defined and focused goal: To achieve the legal and social right for women to conduct a full prayer service, out loud in the women’s section of the Kotel with tallit, tefillin, sefer torah, shofar.

Women of the Wall

Shmuel Rabinovitch, is an Orthodox rabbi and Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel. Among his duties at the Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, he is responsible for enforcing guidelines around the Wall about modesty and general behavior.

Rabinovitch has maintained rigid gender separation at the Wall, conforming to Haredi practice. In 2009, he gave authority for the police to arrest a member of Women of the Wall who was praying with a tallit (a traditional Jewish prayer shawl worn by men) and holding a Sefer Torah. The act had caused an adverse reaction from Haredi worshippers and Rabinowitz claimed "It is an act of provocation that seeks to turn the Western Wall into disputed territory... A prayer that causes contention and desecration of the sanctity of the Western Wall has no value. It is an act of protest"

Shmuel Rabinovitch

Anat HoffmanOct.23, 2012

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. The goal is to give Jewish women religious voice and expression at Judaism’s holiest site, as Jewish men have been enjoying for a long time.

What is WOW’s Mission?

Women of the wall have been coming together at 7AM, once a month for 24 years. Every month, in the rain, in the heat, in the cold, we prayed with tallitot and longed to have the Torah with us. The women who wear tallitot and tefillin in our group take this mitvah on and do so every time they pray, for some, every day. This is not called provocation, this is tradition. Our prayer is sincere.

Aren’t you just being provocative?

Despite some important progressive developments in recent years, religion in Israel is very conservative. The Ministry of Religion is under the control of Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Many of these issues have come to the forefront of Israeli society with current mainstream issues like women’s segregation in the Public Sector.

Aside from the shocking sheer hatred of some, and the threatened, and occasionally, actual violence against us, perhaps the hardest thing is to see people, especially women, who should be our allies staying indifferent: other feminist groups; human and civil rights organizations.

What is the biggest struggle for acceptance WOW has faced?

Americans talk about the “pursuit of happiness,” but I was never enthusiastic about that. I pursue meaning. I find meaning in the fact that I repair things which I think would be left untouched if I weren’t so insistent about them.

What drives you?