Download Freedom of Religion at the Western Wall

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Jewish religious movements
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The significance of the western wall in Judaism
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Judaism includes different groups which have
developed among Jews from ancient times
and especially in the modern era among Jews
living in Anglophone countries.
Historically, the division of Jews in many
Western countries into denominations,
includes three large groups known
as Orthodox, Conservative and Reform
Judaism
Reform
Orthodox
Modern
Orthodox
Haredi
Orthodox
Conservative
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Orthodox Judaism is the approach to religious Judaism which
adheres to the interpretation and application of the laws and
ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts.
Conservative Judaism (known as Masorti Judaism outside the
USA) is a moderate sect that seeks to avoid the extremes of
Orthodox and Reform Judaism. Conservative Jews wish to
conserve the traditional elements of Judaism while also
allowing for reasonable modernization and rabbinical
development.
Reform Judaism is the most liberal branch of modern
Judaism. In an attempt to adapt to the social, cultural, and
political situation of the modern world, Reform Judaism has
either abandoned or changed many of the traditional Jewish
religious observances.
The Western Wall is the most holy place
accessible to the Jewish people. It is located in
the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the
western side of the Temple Mount.
It is a remnant of the ancient wall that
surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard.
Women of the Wall is a non-profit organization
with a defined and focused goal: To achieve
the legal and social right for women to conduct
a full prayer service, out loud in the women’s
section of the Kotel with tallit, tefillin, sefer
torah, shofar.
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Shmuel Rabinovitch, is an Orthodox rabbi and Rabbi of the
Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel. Among his duties
at the Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, he is responsible
for enforcing guidelines around the Wall about modesty
and general behavior.
Rabinovitch has maintained rigid gender separation at the
Wall, conforming to Haredi practice. In 2009, he gave
authority for the police to arrest a member of Women of
the Wall who was praying with a tallit (a traditional Jewish
prayer shawl worn by men) and holding a Sefer Torah. The
act had caused an adverse reaction from Haredi
worshippers and Rabinowitz claimed "It is an act of
provocation that seeks to turn the Western Wall into
disputed territory... A prayer that causes contention and
desecration of the sanctity of the Western Wall has no
value. It is an act of protest"
Oct.23, 2012
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As Women Of the Wall, our central mission is
to achieve the social and legal recognition of
our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls,
pray and read from the Torah collectively and
out loud at the Western Wall.
The goal is to give Jewish women religious
voice and expression at Judaism’s holiest site,
as Jewish men have been enjoying for a long
time.
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Women of the wall have been coming together at
7AM, once a month for 24 years. Every month, in
the rain, in the heat, in the cold, we prayed with
tallitot and longed to have the Torah with us.
The women who wear tallitot and tefillin in our
group take this mitvah on and do so every time
they pray, for some, every day. This is not called
provocation, this is tradition. Our prayer is
sincere.
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Despite some important progressive developments in
recent years, religion in Israel is very conservative.
The Ministry of Religion is under the control of
Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Many of these
issues have come to the forefront of Israeli society
with current mainstream issues like women’s
segregation in the Public Sector.
Aside from the shocking sheer hatred of some, and
the threatened, and occasionally, actual violence
against us, perhaps the hardest thing is to see
people, especially women, who should be our allies
staying indifferent: other feminist groups; human and
civil rights organizations.
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Americans talk about the “pursuit of
happiness,” but I was never enthusiastic
about that. I pursue meaning. I find meaning
in the fact that I repair things which I think
would be left untouched if I weren’t so
insistent about them.