Protestors greeted Women of the Wall participants with curses, heckling and disruptive whistle blowing during their monthly prayer Friday morning at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Approximately ten ultra-Orthodox female protestors gathered around the women, blowing whistles and yelling “Burn alive!” and “Whores!” while police officers stood on the sidelines, according to a press release…
The temporary takeover by Orthodox worshippers of the area at the Western Wall designated for non-Orthodox services combined with doubts about the Israeli government promise to sanction egalitarian prayer there has spurred non-Orthodox leaders to abandon the plan for a separate space and revert to their original demand: for their own section at the existing…
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…
American Jewish leaders have told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Jewish diaspora’s relationship with Israel is at stake if it fails to implement a plan — already approved by the government, but blocked by the ultra-Orthodox — for an egalitarian plaza at the Western Wall. At a June 1 meeting, called in emergency…
TEL AVIV — David Sharan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s U.S.-born chief of staff, who is heading negotiations on an egalitarian Western Wall plaza, will be the Israeli Cabinet’s next secretary. In April, Netanyahu tapped Sharan to run reopened discussion on an agreement to expand the non-Orthodox prayer platform at the Western Wall, allowing progressive…
The Women of the Wall group held Passover holiday prayers at the Western Wall, but did not hold a priestly blessing ceremony, after being banned by Israel’s attorney general. Some 200 women arrived at the Western Wall on buses from throughout the country to hold the Shacharit, or morning, prayers, and Mussaf, or additional, prayers…
Israel’s attorney general banned Women of the Wall from holding a priestly blessing ceremony at the Western Wall. The group, which advocates for women’s right to perform rituals that the Western Wall’s Orthodox authorities maintain are reserved for men, had planned to hold a ceremony featuring the traditional prayer on Sunday, April 24. On Thursday,…
Israel public radio rejected a Women of the Wall ad that included a woman chanting parts of the priestly blessing for being “controversial.” The ad, which is in Hebrew, invites listeners to attend the first ever priestly blessing ceremony in the women’s section of the Western Wall. The blessing will take place during Passover, on…
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