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From the pages of the Jewish News
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Alkee
'1"
Backers of women's prayer at wall weigh
A
their options after a court ruling.
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York City
,
aced with an Israeli Supreme Court decision
banning a women's group from reading the
Torah at the Western Wall, feminists- and advo-
cates of religious pluralism are weighing their
options.
"I'm angrier than I am demoralized," said Phyllis
Chesler, co-founder of Women of the Wall.
In a 5-4 ruling, Israel's Supreme Court reversed an earli-
er decision that had recognized Women of the
Wall's right to pray . at the holy site in the
manner its participants chose.
Women of the
The court also gave the Israeli government
Wall hold hands
12 months to prepare an alternate site for
.in prayer, prior to
Women of the Wall's monthly prayer_ service,
an April 6 Israeli
in which participants read from the Torah and
wear prayer shawls.
Supreme Court
decision whether
But the court ruled that if preparations at
Robinson's Arch, an archaeological site at the
they can hold
organized prayer
southern end of the Western Wall, are not
services at the
completed within a year, the group must be
allowed to pray at the Western Wall.
Western Wall, in
The group, which draws women from all
Jerusalem.
streams of Judaism, symbolized "pluralism in
"The ultra-Orthodox religious leaders have always made
action," said feminist Letty Cottin Pogrebin, who called
that
very clear, and no one's going to defend the reported
the verdict a triumph for Israel's fervently Orthodox estab-
hotheads that have thrown things," he said.
lishment.
In Orthodox Jewish tradition, only men have read from
the Torah. Some fervently Orthodox Jews, outraged by the On The Table
Women of the Wall, now is considering its _pptions.
sight of women reading from the holy scroll, have physi-
Chesler rattled off several:
cally intimidated Women of the Wall prayer sessions.
• wait to see what happens in a year;
• introduce Knesset legislation to override the verdict;
Jewish Modesty
• continue holding services with the Torah near, but not
at, the wall, and holding prayer services at the wall with-
"We're happy with any movement that helps preserve the
out talitot and Torah;
traditional nature of prayer at the Western Wall," said
• flout the decision and pray with the Torah at the wall,
Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath
an act of civil disobedience;
Israel of America, an Orthodox group.
• organize a worldwide campaign of solidarity services
"It goes to the concept of tzniut, or Jewish modesty —
seeking "religious freedom for women."
a much maligned and much misunderstood concept —
The struggle to pray at the Western Wall began on Dec.
that women are not supposed to be placed in the spot-
1, 1988. At an international conference of Jewish women,
light," Rabbi Shafran said. "That doesn't sit well with
Chesler and Rivka Haut took out a Torah and began read-
many people today, but it is part and parcel of the
ing from it in the women's section of the wall.
Jewish religious tradition that lies at the roots of all
For the next six months, women of all denominations
Jews.
continued to read from the Torah together, sometimes
Rabbi Shafran denounced any harassment of female Torah
readers.
WOMEN on page 32
11
•
• Va
+2
The Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit's newest dance
staff instructor, Christina
Kainmueller, will create a "School of
Ballet" based on London's Royal
Academy of Dancing.
The first Harry Laker Memorial
Concert, "A Musical Trialogue," will
be held next week at Temple Israel in
West Bloomfield, where Muslims,
Christians and Jews will raise their
voices together in song.
The publication of a 40,000-word
Russian-Yiddish dictionary is among
the actions now in place for encour-
aging the study of Yiddish in the
Soviet Union.
Max M. Fisher is one of the six hon-
orees at Wayne State University's first
annual Builders of Detroit Dinner to
be held at Cobo Hall.
Mit
An 11th-hour offer by presidents of
12 major American Jewish secular
and religious organizations to fly a
planeload of matzah for distribution
to Russian Jews remained unheeded,
and it is reported only a small num-
ber of the 300,000 Jews in Moscow
secured unleavened bread for Passover.
•
.
\GA,
•
'T‘
:24
Rabbi Richard C. Hertz conducts a
Passover seder as his first official duty
as head rabbi at Detroit's Temple
Beth El.
Detroit's Mayor Cobo signs a
proclaniation designating Sunday,
April 13, as "World Jewish Child's
Day.
:,
4Vk
•Detroiter Nate Shapero is appointed
chairman of the Wayne County
Retail War Savings Committee.
The first Hebrew Congregation of
Delray dedicated an honor roll of 70
sons of members in the rmed forces.
-- Compiled by Holly Teasdle,
archivist, the Rabbi Leo M Franklin
Archives of Temple Beth El
t,V
4/11
2003
31