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.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
