Women of the Wall Leader Arrested for Smuggling Torah Scroll Into Kotel
Lesley Sachs is arrested on June 7 with a Torah scroll at the Western Wall. Image by Michal Fattal
By Naomi Zeveloff June 7, 2016
Women of the Wall executive director Lesley Sachs was detained by Jerusalem police on June 7 for smuggling a small Torah scroll into the women’s section of the Western Wall.
The group said she was detained for “disturbing the public order” after a prayer service of about 80 female worshippers read from the Torah. Sachs was exiting the prayer plaza when she was detained with the Torah. She is being held for questioning.
Private Torah scrolls are not allowed at the Western Wall plaza, according to rules drafted by Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz and approved by the Justice Ministry. Rabinowitz has refused to allow Women of the Wall to access the Torah scrolls in the men’s section. Sachs is the fourth woman arrested with a Torah scroll since 2010.
Yizhar Hess, the executive director of the Conservative Movement in Israel, criticized the police for following Rabinowitz’s rules instead of “doing its job and keeping the law.”
“Israel is the only democracy in the world where Jews do not enjoy freedom of religion,” he said.
The Torah was lent to Women of the Wall by Congregation B’nai Israel from Sacramento, California.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@forward.com or on Twitter @NaomiZeveloff
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.
