The Western Wall Doesn’t Welcome Jews?
Distressing news as authorities in Israel arrested a woman for wearing tallit at the Western Wall for prayers on November 18th. Were this sort of religious discrimination at the hands of a government apparatus to happen to a Jew anywhere else in the world, we would be giving a collective cry of anti-Semitism, yet the religious authorities in Israel enforce a policy that goes against the longings of countless religious Jewish women, and try to marginalize the ideals of a majority of the world’s Jews.
The Kotel that I fell in love with was a where a community could come together to express its communal longings, as diverse as they are. It is one of the central sites in the Jewish religion. Using a state apparatus to close it off to all but the most Orthodox view of appropriate prayer, is, I believe, a terrible threat to pluralism and religious freedom in Israel. It is time to let go of the ultra-Orthodox stranglehold on Jewish life in Israel.
I applaud Women of the Wall for continuing their struggle for religious tolerance. Surely 3,000 years of Jewish history and debate have given us the tools to adapt our holiest sites to the needs of all.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
And The Forward has a similar editorial thought worth reading: http://www.forward.com/articles/119183/
“There are ways to make the Kotel welcoming to Jews of differing practices. Writing in our Sisterhood blog, contributing editor Debra Nussbaum Cohen suggested that a third section, for egalitarian worship, be created alongside the ones for men and women. No doubt there are other creative ideas for sharing this sacred space.
Unless it is truly shared, those Jews who do not follow ultra-Orthodoxy — that is, most Jews — will feel increasingly unwelcome in what is supposed to be the touchstone of their homeland. That is something an embattled Israel can neither desire nor afford.”
November 21st, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Check out these 2 photos:
Opening the new Women of the Wall Torah scroll at the Kotel: http://twitpic.com/pz4rs
Nofrat Frenkel leaving police custody wearing talit holding Torah scroll after being held for two and a half hours: http://twitpic.com/q3eaz