Modern Orthodox Girls To Join Haredi Protest of Women of the Wall
Image by getty images
Girls affiliated with the Modern Orthodox Bnei Akiva movement reportedly will join haredi Orthodox girls at the Western Wall for a prayer service against Women of the Wall.
According to the Israeli religious news website Kipa.co.il, Bnei Akiva has instructed its affiliated girls’ schools to send their students to join the haredi girls for their service on Monday as Women of the Wall holds its monthly service at the Western Wall.
Women of the Wall at the service will be marking its 25th anniversary. The group says some 700 women from throughout Israel will be participating.
In recent months, leading haredi rabbis and activists have mobilized thousands of haredi girls to pray at the wall during Women of the Wall’s services, at times effectively blocking the group from reaching the wall.
It would be the first time that Modern Orthodox schools are sending students to participate in the service by the haredi girls.
Women of the Wall spokesperson Shira Pruce told JTA that the move has offended several of her group’s members who are affiliated with Bnei Akiva.
“Many women are outraged that an organization that represents them would oppose Women of the Wall,” Pruce said. “They’re not saying the organization should take a side at all, but it’s offensive to many that they would teach their children to protest a women’s prayer at the Kotel.”
"Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief"
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
