WATCH: Ultra-Orthodox Rip Up Prayer Book To Protest Western Wall Bat Mitzvah
An ultra-Orthodox man rips up a progressive prayer book in protest. Image by YouTube
A video by Israeli feminist organization Women of the Wall reveals an Orthodox man ripping a prayer book to shreds in protest of women reading at the Western Wall and an American girl’s bat mitzvah.
Established in 1988, WOW gathers once a month at Rosh Hodesh to read from the Torah in protest of Orthodox rules that prevent women from praying at the Western Wall.
Today, they were joined by 13-year-old daughter Frannie Werner of Milwaukee who was celebrating her bat mitzvah at the wall.
According to WOW Chair Anat Hoffman, the group had to smuggle a second Torah scroll to the Wall after a first one was seized by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz at the entrance. Even though Orthodox protesters started jeering, spitting and ripping up the prayer book as they read, the police did not apprehend them.
“If he bans two Torah scrolls next month, we will bring 10,” she said. “You cannot stand in between women and our connection to the Torah.”
Destroying the printed materials that contain any of the Hebrew words for “God” is a taboo in Judaism. Most observant communities don’t even throw such materials away, instead storing them after they are no longer used, and then burying them.
Contact Veronika Bondarenko at [email protected] or on Twitter, @veronikabond.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
-
News Jewish cultural institutions reeling as Trump defunds arts and humanities
-
Fast Forward Conservative movement softens support for two-state solution
-
News How your matzah gets made: A peek inside the Streit’s factory
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 3
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
- 4
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
In Case You Missed It
-
Film & TV In ‘The Rehearsal’ season 2, is Nathan Fielder serious?
-
Fast Forward Pro-Israel groups called for Mohsen Mahdawi’s deportation. He was arrested at a citizenship interview.
-
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
-
Opinion This Nazi-era story shows why Trump won’t fix a terrifying deportation mistake
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.