Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

PenceFence: Female Reporters Were Kept Behind Men During Pence’s Kotel Visit

Female reporters reacted with frustration on Tuesday after they were fenced behind their male counterparts while covering Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The press pool, set up on a raised platform overlooking the Western Wall and the stone square in front of it, was divided in half: Male reporters, including cameramen, were given a front-row birth to photograph Pence meeting with Western Wall officials and touching his hand to the wall. Female reporters were kept behind a low fence, and were not informed in advance of the arrangement.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the women were separated in “keeping with Jewish tradition at the holy site.” Several female reporters, however, said they had never been kept apart from their male counterparts in visiting the Wall.

“I was invited to cover this event by the US Embassy. I am not here as a private individual. I am standing her behind a fence and can’t do my job,” Tal Schneider, an Israeli political reporter, told Maariv.

On Twitter, female reporters reacted with frustration to what they called an unprecedented arrangement using the hashtag #PenceFence.


Pence and his wife, Karen, were at the Western Wall for about ten minutes on Tuesday. Mike Pence prayed before the Wall on the men’s side while Karen Pence stayed on the women’s side. The visit was billed as “private,” and no other Israeli politicians were in attendance. David Friedman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, and Jason Greenblatt, U.S. Middle East Envoy, were in attendance.

In a statement to reporters, Pence said he was “inspired” by the visit. This is his fourth trip to Israel.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.