Insight A(.aWala • Updates 40' Women of Wan Weigh Remember When From the pages of the Jewish News from this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 years ago. nOir-a 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