Since biblical times, male authorities have been debating the issue of whether women should sport tzitzit. Now, thanks to a freshman from Princeton University, a group of young women are — quite literally — taking this fiddly law into their own hands. Maya Rosen, 19, has been wearing tzitzit for three years, making her own…
They were standing in a public square in a major Israeli city, laying tefillin on women amidst shouts of protest and quizzical looks from nearby men in black hats. It’s become an occasional morning routine for Women of the Wall. Except this time, they weren’t at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. They were at the…
The Robinson’s Arch plaza at the Western Wall will come under the control of a future government-appointed pluralist council. Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett forged an agreement within the government on Thursday that would put the egalitarian prayer site in the hands of the council with non-Orthodox representation. Last week, reports emerged that the…
An Israeli group of Orthodox feminists voiced its opposition to moving non-traditional women’s prayer to a new egalitarian area. The Kolech-Religious Women’s Forum sent a letter this week to a special government committee headed by Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mendelblit saying that its members would not be willing to pray in a female minyan in the…
Women of the Wall is close to approving an agreement with the Israeli government to move the group’s monthly prayer service to a new egalitarian area. The report Monday in Haaretz was corroborated on the organization’s Facebook page. The agreement comes after months of negotiations between the organization and an Israeli government committee. In October,…
Comedian Sarah Silverman has been called many things, but never a prophetess. Until yesterday, when she was given prophetic credentials in the magazine section of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot. The accolade comes from an interview with her sister, Jerusalem-based Reform rabbi (and one of the Forward 50 list of important Jews) Susan Silverman, which…
About 200 Women of the Wall held their monthly morning service at the Western Wall, but were refused permission to bring their own Torah scroll to the plaza. The women marked the new Jewish month of Shevat with their Rosh Chodesh service on Jan. 2. Unlike in past months, there were few protests against the…
For 25 years, the Women of the Wall have met for prayer services at the Kotel at the beginning of each Jewish month. But until a Jerusalem court’s ruling this past April, women in the group who donned prayer shawls or sang too loudly would often be detained by police. Now the police are protecting…
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