Blog 9: Women of the Wall

          In a continuing battle between the sects of Judaism in Israel, five women who were arrested at the Western Wall in Jerusalem were released “without conditions.” This is a change of pace for the Israeli authorities, and even though this is ruling of a magistrate, not the Supreme Court, it represents an additional step in the more progressive branches of Judaism’s battle against the Orthodox and the ultra-Orthodox.

          At the Western Wall, or the Kotel, women have been traditionally segregated and banned from adorning Jewish garments like the prayer shawl and praying aloud from Torah. However, a group of women has organized into “Women of the Wall” and has protested and demonstrated against the stranglehold of the Orthodoxy and its ability to control what happens at the Kotel. Five of these women were arrested by Israeli police for “disturbing public order,” but Judge Sharon Lari-Bavli disagreed and stated that in reality, “the people disturbing public order on Thursday were a group of ultra-Orthodox protesters who were demonstrating against the women.”

          This struggle has been ongoing for many years with many different types of compromises either attempted or simply proposed, such as allowing women to pray in this fashion at a less obvious portion of the Wall or creating more space for progressive Jews to share alongside the Orthodox Jews. What makes the fight all the more intense is that the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews are a minority group among other forms of Judaism, other faiths, and secular people, and yet their voice in the government is disproportionately large, many believe.

          The implications of the battle for the Kotel are far more wide-reaching than just Israeli gender relations and Israeli faiths. The United States is of course Israel’s strongest supporter, and not merely militarily or financially – the diasporic community of Jews within the United States is also very important to Israel. However most American Jews are not Orthodox and have become more vocal in their displeasure with the Israeli government’s capitulations to the Haredi (Orthodoxy). What the United States wants politically and what Israel is politically may be mutually exclusive at the moment and could lead to more strained relations and more tension on such issues as the Palestinian Territories.

          For the meantime, the women are free to go and no doubt their activities will continue. What remains to be seen is if the Haredi will step up its assaults on Jews of the more progressive bent or if it will be satisfied, for the time being, with compromises. This is a further illustration of the religious divisions that exist within one faith, which can be at least as if not more bitter than interfaith problems.

Court Rules for Women in Western Wall Dispute

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/world/middleeast/israeli-court-rules-for-women-at-western-wall.html?_r=0

Posted at 4:03 PM on 4/12/2013