Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis Shoo Women From the Western Wall
- Share via
JERUSALEM — Jewish feminists in prayer shawls and skullcaps and carrying a Torah sparked furious protests from ultra-Orthodox rabbis Thursday when they prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest shrine.
“A woman carrying a Torah is like a pig at the Wailing Wall,” said Rabbi Meir Yehuda Getz, who is in charge of the site.
More than 50 women, who were in Israel to attend the first international Jewish feminist conference, prayed at the wall to demonstrate for women’s rights to equality in the traditionally male-dominated Jewish ritual. The women, mainly from the United States and Canada, included two women rabbis from North American Reform and Reconstructionist movement synagogues.
“It was a simple, very moving prayer in which you can also see something symbolic,” said Naomi Aarenstein, spokeswoman for the Empowerment of Jewish Women conference.
They chanted prayers, read from the Torah (Scriptures) and sang hymns in the women’s enclosure at the sexually segregated site, the last remnant of King Solomon’s biblical Jewish temple.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
John Orr was a renowned fire investigator who was also a prolific arsonist, and whose thinly veiled novel helped to convict him. In this episode we hear from the fire captain who first suspected him—and from Orr himself.
Madison McGhee is joined by legendary Dateline host Josh Mankiewicz and esteemed L.A. Times Reporter Richard Winton as the three of them dive into all-things Menendez Brothers, the good, the bad, and the still unknown.
NPR climate editor Sadie Babits talks about why the media has long overlooked the climate crisis, and how that’s starting to change.
