After Pulling All-Nighter, Women of the Wall Pray with Torah Scroll
Upsetting the Status Quo? Women of the Wall have been active for 25 years. But 2013 is the year their struggle took the world stage. Image by Getty Images
Women of the Wall was able to pray with a Torah scroll after bringing one into the Western Wall plaza the previous evening and keeping it there all night.
Western Wall regulations bar the group, which conducts monthly morning prayer services at the site, from bringing a Torah scroll to its service. To circumvent the regulation, according to a Women of the Wall press release, group members brought a scroll in at 7 p.m. Saturday evening, 12 hours ahead of the Sunday morning service.
The members then stayed with the scroll all night. According to the press release, the group successfully appealed to the Jerusalem chief of police when they were asked to remove the scroll.
In the past, the group has smuggled a mini-Torah scroll into the women’s section. During another service, male supporters of the group hoisted a scroll over the divider between the men’s and women’s sections, encountering violent opposition.
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