In my opinion, as long as they are in the women's section, they can do whatever they want as an expression of prayer. Well, no undressing.
However, the Supreme Court has decided what they can and cannot do and they refuse to accept those limitations. In that case, how can they complain when they are detained?
Moreover, where is their solidarity with a parallel group of people campaigning for their religious rights, on the Temple Mount specifically? Or are they hypocritical?
Extracts:
The face-off at the security gate outside the Western Wall one Friday this month was familiar: for more than two decades, women have been making a monthly pilgrimage to pray at one of Judaism’s holiest sites in a manner traditionally preserved for men, and the police have stopped them in the name of maintaining public order.
...Bonna Devora Haberman, 52, of Women of the Wall, was confronted by the police this month after trying to bring in her prayer shawl...“How can you say this to me?” demanded a tearful Bonna Devora Haberman, 52, a Canadian immigrant who helped found the group Women of the Wall in 1988. “I’m a Jew. This is my state.” The officer was unmoved. “At the Western Wall, you can’t pray with a tallit,” he said, referring to the fringed prayer shawl in Ms. Haberman’s backpack. “You can’t go in with it.”
...to pray as they wish at the site has become a rallying cause for liberal Jews in the United States and around the world...
“The next chapter of what it means to be a Jewish state is being defined right now,” said Elana Sztokman, the director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, who is writing a book that includes a chapter about Women of the Wall. “We have to figure out what does Israel want, what role do we really want religion to have in this state? And it’s happening on the backs of women.”
...said Anat Hoffman, the group’s leader. “Many of Israel’s best inventions were imports,” she added. “For example: Zionism.”
That last statement is ridiculous, by the way. Nonsensical. Since Zionism means bringing Jews back to Israel, of course it started in Eretz-Yisrael even though those that fulfill it come from abroad - because they have to return.
And why not ecstasy?
A half-hour later, Ms. Haberman was dancing and singing hymns in the women’s section of the Western Wall, tears replaced by a grin of what she called “ecstasy.” Soon after, she and the others were at Robinson’s Arch, wrapped in their shawls as they read from the Torah.
Is Reform ecstasy different than Ultra-Orthodox ecstasy?
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As usual, Rudoren has failed to grasp the historical and legal facts and the true nature of Women of the Wall.
For example, the Torah used on December 1st, 1988 did not come from abroad but was borrowed by Rabbi Helene Ferris from the Reform movement in Israel.
In November-December of 1989, the International Committee for Women of the Wall did donate a Torah to WOW and when we were not allowed to pray with it in the women’s section in a woman-only halachic (as defined by orthodox halacha) prayer group, we brought a suit in the Israeli Sup Ct. Our suit was joined to the Israeli women’s suit and led to three Sup Ct decisions. The first decision sent us to the first of two Knesset Commissions but said we could return to the Ct if no remedy was found that was agreeable to us; the second decision granted us the full and immediate right to daven with a Torah in the Ezrat Nashim. Of course, the state immediately appealed this decision and our case was heard by nine judges—four agreed with our view, four opposed us, and the fifth and deciding vote was cast against us by none other than Mr. Liberal himself, the former President of the Court, Aharon Barak. This is a judge who could find remedies for Arab Jews and for “Palestinian” Arabs but not for Jewish women, not for Jewish women’s religious rights.
Rudoren does not understand that the kind of pluralism WOW has represented is that women from all denominations, including atheists, could pray as Jews together in a halachic way (as above, halachic as defined by orthodox Judaism). We have been the only group of Jews to be able to do this, that unites all denominations of Jewry.
Rudoren only deals with events that have happened in the last year. She has no idea of the long history of violence against WOW, which includes the state’s refusal to arrest very violent haredi men and women (some of whom have physically wrestled with WOW for possession of our Torah), and have even hired special guards to both monitor and arrest only WOW.
Rudoren has no idea of the history of Robinson’s Arch and the fact that WOW has never, ever found it an acceptable alternative. It is primarily an archeological site, the hours for prayer are highly limited, the access for women on walkers, in wheelchairs, and with baby carriages is even more limited. The fact that Rudoren ends her piece with one WOW member feeling “ecstatic” at Robinson’s Arch fails to grasp how strongly WOW as a group has utterly rejected this as a prayer site.
I am gravely concerned with the existential threat that Israel faces, not only from Islamists military enemies but also from left and Islamist propaganda. While Judaism may not have a clear history of recognizing women’s rights (Yes, I know that Rabbenu Gershom outlawed polygamy, etc.), Israel now counts itself as a western-style democracy where women’s rights and individual rights and freedom of religion are key defining characteristics. And, while the WAQF views the Kotel as “Muslim property,” it does not help Israel’s case in the court of public opinion to be so…”Islamist” in its treatment of women.
Many of WOW’s leaders are sabras, have made principled aliyah to Israel, have children who serve in the IDF, and love Israel. We published our book Women of the Wall. Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism’s Holy Site in 2002 and dedicated it to the state of Israel. Since the Intifada of 2000, with two small exceptions, I have refused to use this violation of Jewish women’s religious freedom against Israel in public. My patience is being sorely tested by the unnecessary brutality that the administrator of the Kotel, Shmuel Rabinovich, has orchestrated against WOW.
And by the way: Notice how Rudoren has not even bothered to interview anyone from the opposing side. She writes op-ed pieces, she does not cover the news in an informed and impartial way—but we already knew that.
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