Orthodox Jewish women
heckle women as they pray at
the Western Wall on June 4_ Women
were Priging in defiance of the initial
passage of a bill in the parliament
that would sentence women who pmy •
o loud or wear typitally
men's rekffious attiir at thePoly
site to seven year in jag
tension among Jews as Israel Supreme Court deliberates.
fudge Eliahu Matza wrote in his majority opinion.
But the struggle did not end there.
Israeli lawmakers swiftly drafted and passed legis-
lation to override the court's action. The first bill,
introduced by the Shas party (Sephardi Religious
Party), declared the Kotel a religious site, where
eating, smoking and drinking are banned, as are
public gatherings without prior notice. Another
bill, introduced by the United Torah Judaism party,
'allows for a seven-year prison sentence for any
woman who blows the shofar (usually a ram's horn),
wears tallit, lays tefillin or reads from the Torah at
the Wall. The bills must pass two more readings in
the Knesset to be enacted.
As recently as Nov. 19, the Israel Supreme Court
met to rethink the ruling to allow women to pray at
the Wall. An expanded panel of nine justices con-
vened at the request of the state, which had asked
the court to reconsider its ruling six months ago in
favor of the women's group. The state argued that
the prayer services could pose a threat to public safe-
ty and the sensitivities of Orthodox worshippers.
The high court plans to resume deliberations after
touring the Western Wall Plaza area.
Tension Reigns
On June 4, the first Rosh Chodesh following the
May 22 ruling, about 150 women came to the gray
stone wall to pray. The Orthodox, Conservative,
Reform and Reconstructionist women sang as a
gathering of fervently religious haredi men stood at
the entrance of the women's section and taunted
them. Armed police officers stood guard over the
women, preventing violence.
"We haven't reached our goal," said Rivka Haut, a
Brooklyn-based leader in the Orthodox women's
prayer group movement and founder of the
Women's Tefilla Network. "Our goal is to do what
we did Dec. 1, 1988. We did it then and all we are
trying to do is to go back."
What she is alluding to is another historic prayer
session that came 12 years ago when a group of
women, now known as the Women of the Wall
(WOW), first met at the Kotel to pray. Haut led
these women, who were part of the American Jewish
Congress-sponsored First International Jewish
Feminist Conference in Jerusalem. There was no
minyan or prayers requiring one, just women pray-
ing and reading from the Torah.
"In no way are we egalitarian. We are sticking to
the rules of Orthodox women's prayer groups,"
said Haut, co-author of Daughters of the King:
Women and the Synagogue.
On that day in 1988, the group sang and chanted
as a growing level of curses came from the men's side
of the mechitza. But as the curses grew, the women
encircled the Torah to protect it and continued to
sing. "It was tremendously moving, very spiritually
uplifting. We left singing," Haut recalled.
WALL DIVIDED on page 10
12/8
2000
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