Women of the Wall by Goldie Elkins
On Thursday, October 19, 2017 students of Heller High met with Anat Hoffman, leader of the Israel Religious Action Center which was established in 1987. The main focus of IRAQ is to advocate equality, social justice, religious tolerance and religious diversity throughout Israel. Some challenges that IRAC faces is being taken to the supreme court on numerous occasions and having to deal with the issue of sexism and racism. Anat spoke to us not only about the conflict against Jewish woman, but Arab citizens of Israel as well. She told us a story about 2 Imans and 4 students that had been in jail for writing against Jews on their facebooks, yet Rabbis and students preach against Arabs despite the fact that the law states they are not allowed to incite against a minority under the guide of Judaism. The job of IRAC is to identify this unjust behavior and fight against it. Anat also explained that Israel is a "Jewish Democratic State." This definition means as it sounds. A democracy is a state governed by the population or members of state, which the people of that country elected, and Israels most common religion is Judaism, with a heavy Jewish influence throughout the country. This takes on the challenge of sharing land with the West Bank and how the West Bank must control their territory, and relations with Arab citizens of Israel. The term "Jewish Democratic State" also excludes Arab citizens in the name, which can add to the already existing problem that stands between the Jews and the Arabs. The main reason that Anat came to speak with us was to prepare us for the event that we would be participating in, the next day, called Women of the Wall.
Woman of the Wall is a feminist organization based in Israel that fights for the rights of Women being able to sing, read from the Torah and wear the same Religious items of clothing as men. These articles of clothing include Kippahs and Tallits. People have been using the wall as a site to pray for thousands of years. The next morning, we woke up at 5:20 a.m. Everyone was pretty tired but excited to see what was in store for us. Many people had been looking forward to this Tiyul. We hopped on a bus to Jerusalem to be a part of protesting with Women of the Wall. When we arrived, us girls formed in a circle before being separated from our boys. Within five minutes of being there, the energy was very clear to me. A group of about 4 orthodox young men were standing close to us taking pictures and laughing. I knew that it was because a lot of us were wearing Tallits. Shortly after our circle, we made our way over to the far right part of the women’s section. At first, a feeling of sadness came upon me, followed by tears. Right next to us, were a group of orthodox girls blowing whistles and screaming with their faces concealed by scarves. One of the girls looked as young as six years old, which really stuck out to me. I was so furious at them but then I realized that the correct emotion to be was sad because they didn’t know any better, as they grew up listening to radical beliefs with no freedom to chose what THEY really believe in. One of the girls screamed in Hebrew: “How is the world going to be silent while this is going on.” To them, what we were doing 
Throughout Tfilah the number of guards that had to deal with the orthodox protesters increased. They were pulling whistles out of their mouths and fighting verbally, and physically with them One of the girls even got escorted. After praying in the women’s section we left to read Torah, because we couldn’t bring the actual Torah in. This was when both genders conjoined to pray with one another. Orthodox men were yelling at us, saying that Women have no right to read Torah and they’re not good at it and that we are only going backwards. During the Torah reading, we saw the head of the reform movement in Israel which was super cool. I also was amazed at the number of men who came to fight for the rights of Women. Although the orthodox community appeared to be the only ones protesting, some Orthodox women do participate in Women of the Wall. It is more common for members of the Orthodox community to oppose women of the wall because they pray with men and Women separated, even in synagogue, while conservatives and reform Jews pray together. On Yom Kippur, we had the opportunity to choose from 3 different synagogues to visit and I chose a Moroccan Orthodox synagogue. The women’s section did not have a Torah, nor a rabbi on their side, while the men's side had both, but we couldn’t see because of the curtain in between us. I heard from some Jews who are both reform and conservative that they agree with the point of Women of the Wall, but not the idea of it. Some people that I talked to find what they are doing disrespectful.
My question to Kitat Maayan: I would like to ask everyone to put aside their beliefs and picture themselves as as Orthodox Jew who has never been to a reform Tfilah service in their life and revolved their life around the Torah. Do you think that as an Orthodox Jew, you would advocate for Women of the Wall? If not, why wouldn't you? If so, what would you do to help this organization? Also, what was the most moving part of the event to you?
This is a really interesting comment, but I'm not sure that I can picture myself as an orthodox woman. Honestly, I do not have an understanding of the form of judaism they follow and therefore do not have a basis to answer this question with. I HOPE that I would support this cause, though. Even if I was not fighting for my own right to pray out loud with a torah at the wall as it wouldn't be something I believe in, I hope that I could see the importance of fighting for the right of other people in the jewish community to pray however they may wish. I believe that true tolerance is the ability to allow other people's belief systems to coexist with your own - as long as their belief system does not try and take away your own rights or the personal freedoms of any individual. I hope that if I was an orthodox woman I would still have that basic belief, and would go to Women of the Wall events to show support for their cause.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the most moving part of the morning was when I go distracted from the service by a woman screaming when the guards tried to take her whistle away. When the guards succeeded and tried to escort her away from our protected area, she pushed forward as much as she could and screamed towards us. It was scary to me for many reasons- one of which was because she had a cloth covering her face. It is chilling to hear so much emotion coming from someone but not be able to see their facial expressions, or even what they look like. It also startled me because I cannot imagine believing it is right to scream at a group of women peacefully praying. What were we actually doing wrong? But just when I was at my most distracted, a woman who clearly did not speak any english tried to get me to turn towards the service again. She did this with hand motions and facial expressions, even going as far as to physically turn my body, but the message I recieved was so much more than that. That orthodox woman was not our fight. In fact, we weren't there to fight at all, but to tune out all the surrounding distractions and focus on praying the best we could. I do not believe in god, and I'm not sure what I was praying for or who to, but never before have I felt so empowered in a religious setting. This organization is so important to me not for myself, as I do not care about praying out loud with a Torah at the wall, but for everyone else who does want that. I cannot expect people to care about my rights that do not impact them in any way if I do not care about theirs.
As an Orthodox Jew I would have been raised in a household that doesn't accept dissent from the norm. If I were to see Women of the Wall praying, I would have spat on the ground and kept walking. This is because of how I would have been raised. From birth, Ultra Orthodox Jews are taught that any difference from how the Rabbis interpreted the mitzvot is wrong. The 613 rules on every aspect of life is so important to them that seeing something new or progressive is startling to them. As a reform Jew, I agree that the wall should be egalitarian so everyone can pray equally. I don't believe that it is O.K. to let a minority of extremists dictate how we pray at our most holy site. During the tiyul I was moved by the little girls who were blowing whistles to silence the prayers because these are obviously not her values, but the values embedded into her by her parents. I felt pity for the girl because from a young age she is taught to oppress her own gender.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't think I could even picture myself as an orthodox jew, so because of that I don't even know how to answer your question. I hope that I would be able to go out of the orthodox social norms and support women of the wall and other accepting movements that promote equality. I think the most moving part to me was when the little girls were constantly blowing their whistles, because it just shows to me how intolerance and hatred is embedded in them from such a young age and they don't even understand what they are "protesting" against.
ReplyDeleteIf I was an orthodox Jew I'm pretty sure I would not support the cause. I would have been raised and surrounded by people whom would have not accepted WOW. However, I don't think that by "not supporting" the cause I would have been wrong and unfair. Orthodox Jews are different from liberal- they believe in tradition, and the whole concept of WOW is not traditional, so I can't blame people for the way the prefer to live.
ReplyDeleteI am a liberal Jew and agree in equality between men and women, but when it comes to praying I very much prefer the traditional way of it. That is why I both support and don't support WOW. I understand and could agree with the message, but I think it is very disrespectful to carry out this battle at such a Holy site. I understand that all WOW wants to do is to pray peacefully-but let's be honest, it very much comes out as a protest and a fight at a place where that shouldn't be happening. Also, I think that since the Kotel is also a historical monument, by modernizing it with equality (women wearing kipas and tallits, having a Torah at the women's section), our original way of praying will be forgotten. If everything will be changed at the holiest and most meaningful site of our religion -tradition will be forgotten.
If I was an Orthodox Jew, I think I wouldn’t be supportive of Women of the Wall at all based on how i was raised. I think I would take one look at them in disgust and get as far away from them as I can. This is because Orthodox are taught to follow the commandments, basically strict sets of rules that forbid this. The orthodox movement will have to and hopefully soon will realize that just like we don’t sacrifice animals anymore, we don’t (or shouldn’t) discriminate anyone by gender.
ReplyDeleteTo put aside my beliefs and picture myself as an Orthodox Jew is surprisingly hard, but understandable since I have very liberal views and opinions. However, as an Orthodox Jew I would have mixed feelings about Women of the Wall (like any other person regardless of religion). Although it is not against Halacha for women to read out of the Torah, it is against Halacha for a man to hear a woman's voice praying. This can be interpreted though as a man hearing a woman's voice when they aren't separated. (Thanks Ariella) On the other hand, for a woman to read out of the Torah is against tradition, which is a huge part of Judaism. As an Orthodox woman I would hope that I would support Women of the Wall's ideals and goals even if I didn't support how they were doing it. No matter what though, I would hope that I would fight for women's rights and make my voice be heard. I would support them by going to their services and actively keeping up with their projects and current legal cases. The most moving part of the service for me was when all of our voices rose above the whistling and screaming before it had stopped. This only made me want to participate more and sing louder. Tfillah for me is usually being with a community, tradition, and a time for self reflection, but praying with Women of the Wall was far more different. Never have I been to a service that also protested for rights of individuals, which should already be a basic concept in modern society as well in Judaism. Not only that but the acceptance of people and respecting their beliefs and values should be something everyone should do whether or not you agree with them. It hurt to see the little girls and other women screaming and whistling for a variety of reasons. To see those little girls who may have had no idea what they were whistling and screaming about. It's an example of how not understanding one another and not giving others the ability to learn to accept others has a really negative effect on society. It also seemed that those protesting were not aware that they were not affecting the Women of the Wall serivce, but instead disturbing the entire Kotel. Maybe this doesn't affect the WOW service, but in the future if this was seen in favor of the women screaming and whistling than WOW can be labeled as a disturbance to the entire Kotel. What was the most upsetting though was seeing how violent the security and protesters had gotten because one would think and hope that by now as civil human beings we would be able to use our words more so than physical violence and voice our protests instead. The female protest was harder to see, in my opinion, since it was other women fighting against a feminist group that works to unite us all. However, there were plenty of male protest as well. Seeing young boys shush the group and being told to die, leave, to have a bitter month, that women can't and definitely shouldn't read out of the Torah or pray aloud together was also difficult. Another empowering moment was to see how the service would occasionally quiet down to listen to the comments and then laugh or disregard anything they had said. Women of the Wall was an incredible experience and one I hope to experience again. Never had I imagined that I'd be able to do something such as that and I am more than thankful that I had the chance to participate with and support Women of the Wall.
ReplyDeleteAs an Orthodox Jew, I hope that I would still believe in equal rights, even if my life would be revolved around Torah. If I somewhat agreed with what Women or the Wall were fighting for, I hope that I would support them in what they were doing. I would hope I would come to their t'fillah and support them. They need all the help they can get, and every person matters. There were a lot of very moving moments on this tiyul. One was seeing how little kids were protesting heavily against us, and they weren't even old enough to form their own opinions. They were taught that whatever we were doing is bad. It was also moving how we got a torah in. It was moving when we could join together with the men and see the men who liberated the wall. People came to support something that they believed in, and I find that amazing and deeply moving itself.
ReplyDeleteIf I was an orthodox Jew, I would not support Woman of the Wall. I would be raised not to support things like that so straying from those beliefs would be very hard. Imagining myself as an Orthodox woman I wish that I could see myself supporting them but realistically that wouldn't happen. The most moving part was seeing them men at the end supporting the woman and seeing the paratroopers with us. I though it was very nice to see that there is support from both sides and not only women.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very hard question! I think it really depends on how you were raised. If I was raised to believe something other then equal rights for men and women, I think there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be apart of such a wonderful movement. I think of myself as a very open minded person. I think if somebody introduced the idea of women of the wall to me, I think I would be interested. I’d like to believe that I could that I could be apart of the women of the wall movement, even without being raised with those values. To help the organization I would come to their meetings and obviously come and support them every month by praying at the wall with them. Lastly, I think the most moving part of the whole experience was praying along side my Jewish sisters. I felt connected to everyone around me, even though not eveyone agreed with what we were doing.
ReplyDeleteIf I were an Orthodox Jew I probably wouldn't. Everything I would've been taught and read would go against what the Women of the Wall are doing. I am surprised even that the WOW even have a strong Orthodox following.
ReplyDeleteBut if I were Orthodox and I did support them as an Orthodox, the best way to support them would be to participate. Seeing an Orthodox not adhering to the status quo and participating in a WOW service would cause others to join in, growing the movement.
Good question! I find it hard to put myself in an orthodox point of view...however if I grew up orthodox i dont think I would even glance twice at the women. My family, no matter what religion, would form an opinion and stand by it. If I did support them I would probably do it in secret. The most moving part was when we were all singing in a circle, because Jews love circles, and I knew the words.
ReplyDeleteI can't picture myself as an orthodox Jew. Even if I was, I don't think I would be involved in protesting the women of the wall. I would probably be more focused on justifying any positions i previously had, and trying to see if any prior convictions of mine were justified rather than trying to form new ones.
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