Kotel Foundation ‘shocked’ by conduct of Women of the Wall
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the administrator of the holy site, expressed “shock” at the activities of the Women of the Wall following “severe physical violence perpetrated by this group.”
“Women of the Wall” wearing a kippah and tallit, celebrating with orthodox women the new month of Heshvan, at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Oct 30, 2019. Photo by Hodaya Kalman/TPS
The Women of the Wall arrived at the Kotel on Wednesday morning for their monthly prayer-protest session, during which they held prayers and read the Torah in the Women’s section, an act the majority of the Orthodox worshippers at the site view as a provocation.
The activists were documented physically confronting other worshippers at the site.
The Kotel Foundation further charged that the Women of the Wall “added a sin to a crime” when one of the activists hid a Torah scroll under her clothes and against her body.
“The Western Wall Heritage Foundation expresses its shock at a terrible and difficult event of this desecration in front of the sacred stones of the Kotel”, it stated.
The Foundation also expressed its shock at the use of whistles, apparently by the Orthodox worshippers, during the clashes.
Earlier on, the Kotel Foundation updated that “a very small group of Reform women” led by Member of Knesset Gilad Kariv, a reform rabbi from the Labor party, arrived at the Western Wall plaza as the group “intensified its struggle” after it declared last week that its goal is to “come and demonstrate at the Western Wall on their worldview in the field of religion in Israel.”
“Unfortunately, Kariv chose to attend this event despite President Isaac Herzog’s appeal to him that his presence heats up the environment and turns the Western Wall plaza into a battlefield,” the Foundation pointed out.
“This group violently breached the compound designated for them and thus again violated all the agreements made with them by the President of the State and the Ministry of Justice,” it added. “This group used violence against Orthodox worshipers and pushed them out of the compound as they sought to reach the Western Wall stones.”
The Women of the Wall denied the allegations and claimed they were attacked.
“Spreading the lies as if the Women of the Wall raised a hand against worshipers is part of the same campaign of incitement, hatred and demonization against the Women of the Wall, which will end in bloodshed at the Western Wall,” they stated.
“As usual, the women of the Western Wall were violently attacked, and the security guards of the Western Wall Rabbi did nothing to protect this,” they claimed.
However, the Kotel Foundation said that “This group inflamed the spirits and disgracefully disrupted public order and disturbed the hundreds of worshipers who came this morning and asked to pray in honor of Rosh Chodesh Adar,” it charged.
It finally noted that members of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation “constantly begged this group to stay in a compound made for them in order to maintain public order, but they chose, led by Yochi Rapaport, to confront the Orthodox who prayed there and to infuriate the public as a sign of protest.”
The Women of the Wall clash with the Orthodox majority at the holy site on a monthly basis. While there is a designated area for egalitarian prayer, the activists demand to hold their prayer sessions in the midst of the plaza used by the Orthodox majority, which they say harms their religious feelings, thus generating clashes and friction at the site on a monthly basis.
Thank you for your response, Rabbi Ingram. It does not surprise me that Orthodox religious women are outraged by Women of the Wall activities. In the main, I know that they follow their menfolk and the interpretation of Torah and rules that go with that.
I do not give my opinion as it is with ‘left-wing’ or feminist credos or ideologies in mind. I give it as a Jewish woman of intelligence and inherent respect for G-d, man and woman. The differences between men and women are complementary in nature and should not result in lack of equality in worship, academic or professional work, or in the ways in which people move about and participate in public life.
Liat, I have news for you. It is the religious WOMEN who are the most outraged by the provocative antics of Women of the Wall and their patron-in-chief Gilad Kariv!
Once again the Women of the Wall create an unholy ruckus at our holiest site and MK Gilad Kariv adds fuel to the flames.. I urge the Australian Union for Progressive Judaism to publicly dissociate itself from this disgraceful chilul haShem on the part of WOW and Kariv which will do nothing to advance their cause – quite the contrary. I suppose for that we have to be grateful!
It is an outdated and unnecessary ruling to separate men and women at the Wall at all. Rules brought about by extremely religious men with their own interpretation of Judaism, rules that also extend to other areas of man/woman sharing of space, whether public transport (even though illegal to apply it here), dancing and eating socially, synagogue attendance, et al.
These men need to be dragged into the 21st century and relinquish their ‘ownership’ of Judaism so that all Jews of any kind can share rightfully in their heritage. When that occurs, there will be peace and joy for all concerned. Until then, they’ll just have to face the music.
Like most other virtue signalling lefties these W.O.W. clowns are in a perpetual state of rage and seek only to make a spectacle of themselves as they heap disrespect on those who wish to retain an element of Kedusha at Judaism’s holiest site.