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After lawsuits, and years of negotiations, in January the Israeli government approved mixed-gender prayer services at a new area to be constructed just south of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The agreement was celebrated outside of Israel as a victory for women, but also for its de facto recognition of the liberal streams of Judaism.<\/p>\n
The existing sections of the Western Wall\u2019s prayer area will still be governed by Orthodox regulations: women cannot read aloud from the Torah, nor wear tallit and tefillin\u2009\u2014\u2009practices the Women of the Wall, a group praying together regularly at the Wall for more than 25 years, have taken on, despite having been jeered, attacked, and occasionally jailed for this activity.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, appointed for life to be in charge of the Wall (the Kotel, in Hebrew), and who considers women\u2019s out-loud praying \u201cblasphemous,\u201d will have no authority over the new area, Robinson\u2019s Arch; it will be under the jurisdiction of Reform and Conservative movements. Nor will he control the \u201cupper plaza,\u201d used for ceremonies like the swearing-in of soldiers. Such official national ceremonies will now be able to include women singing and will have no separation of the sexes.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s issues are often the canary in the coal mine, indicators of other changes. The New York Times reported that Anat Hoffman, the chair of the board of Women of the Wall, declared the government\u2019s approval was acknowledgement \u201cthat there is more than one way to be Jewish.\u201d She added, \u201cWe were a catalyst for something revolutionary.\u201d Indeed, among Diaspora Jews to the left of the ultra-Orthodox, the Knesset decision was largely hailed as breaking the ultra-Orthodox hold on other practices and laws, with the hope that the Wall agreement would lead to full recognition of non-Orthodox rabbis in Israel and a loosening of the strictures around \u201cpersonal status\u201d issues such as marriage and divorce.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it is unclear whether Orthodox women who wish to pray aloud only with women will be permitted this practice in the women\u2019s section once the egalitarian prayer area is in place. Under the agreement, women who prefer single-sex prayer will need to reserve a portable mechitza to separate them from the mixed-gender worship. Activists who name themselves Original Women of the Wall want to \u201cpursue women\u2019s prayer in the women\u2019s section\u201d\u2014in full voice, with Torah, tallit and tefillin, and some say the new agreement actually reinforces the power of the ultra-Orthodox rather than diminishing it. Others claim that women\u2019s prayer has been thrown under the bus for the sake of strengthening the position of the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel. From blogs and social media posts it looks like the \u201cvictory\u201d has opened up a chasm between the liberal streams of Judaism and some Modern Orthodox women and allies. Listen:<\/p>\n
Rabbi Rachel Adler<\/strong>, on Facebook, February 1, 2016: \u201cThis morning my email was flooded with triumphant announcements that we non-Orthodox Jews have been promised a kotel of our very own. Forgive me if I do not rejoice\u2026.The charedi [ultra-Orthodox] kotel is to be purified of heretical non-Orthodox Jews and uppity Jewish feminists both. They will all be sequestered at their own little toy kotel, and the charedim will be free to make their kotel into a haredi [ultra-Orthodox] shul without any interference from the courts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Anat Hoffman<\/strong>, a negotiator of the agreement and Director of the Reform movement\u2019s Israel Religious Action Center, in an interview with Lilith editor in chief Susan Weidman Schneider hosted by the New Israel Fund in Washington, DC, March 17: \u201cThe agreement marks the end of religious hierarchies that discriminate against women. Women will now have an equal chance to practice their religion.\u201d What about the dispute? \u201cIt\u2019s radical feminists against more pragmatic feminists.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Shulamit Magnus<\/strong>, one of the Original Women of the Wall who filed a lawsuit in November 2015 to allow women\u2019s full prayer at the women\u2019s section of the Wall, rather than at Robinson\u2019s Arch, wrote in the Jerusalem Post, January 26: \u201cWe reject any deal that would infringe upon, let alone deny, the hard-earned and historic rights of Jewish women at the Kotel. \u2026[I]n accepting Robinson\u2019s in this way, you enhance the power of the very haredi establishment that anathematizes you and rejects your Jewish legitimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After lawsuits, and years of negotiations, in January the Israeli government approved mixed-gender prayer services at a new area to be constructed just south of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilith.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/9491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilith.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilith.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilith.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilith.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilith.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilith.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}