Women of the Wall Draws 100 to Prayer Service After Kotel Deal
Image by Getty Images
Women of the Wall drew 100 women to its monthly service a week and a half after the adoption of a compromise over the future of prayer at the Western Wall.
Haredi Orthodox protesters shouted insults at the worshippers Wednesday, according to a press release from the group, which conducts monthly services in the wall’s women’s section. The group was unable to pray with a Torah, as the site’s regulations prohibit torahs in the women’s section.
The deal reached last month will expand a non-Orthodox prayer section south of the traditional, Orthodox prayer area at the site, which will be run by a non-Orthodox committee. A shared entrance will lead to both sections. The wall’s Orthodox prayer area will remain under haredi control.
Women of the Wall agreed to the deal, and will move to the expanded non-Orthodox section only once it is completed, a process that could take years. Once there, the group will pray behind a partition. A breakoff from the group has rejected the deal and vowed to continue praying in the Orthodox women’s section.
“We sang with the feeling that now we truly begin a new path to ‘being a free people in our land,’” Women of the Wall Chairwoman Anat Hoffman said in the press release, quoting Israel’s national anthem.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
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.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
