Police Protect Mixed-Gender Group

Men and women praying together at Jerusalem’s Western Wall once again faced attacks from Orthodox protesters this week, but unlike other incidents in the last few years, this time the worshipers received police protection.

Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of the Conservative movement in Israel, called the police protection of the male-female service “a historical precedent.”

The service at the wall, which is revered by Jews as a remnant of the temple destroyed by the Romans in the 1st century, took place Sunday on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It involved more than 300 people who came to the wall for traditional morning prayers. The worshipers were largely identified with the Conservative movement, also known in Israel as Masorti. The Conservative and Reform movements are the largest among American Jews, but in Israel the Orthodox movement dominates religious life.

Orthodox religious leaders insist on separation of men and women during prayers, and Israel’s Orthodox rabbinate had taken out advertisements in many Jewish publications seeking to discourage Conservative and Reform plans to hold a mixed-gender prayer service near the wall on the holiday.

As they have in the past when men and women sought to pray together at the wall, Orthodox Jewish protesters sought to disrupt the service, cursing the worshipers and throwing garbage and bags of chocolate milk over the police barrier.

Last year, police responded to a similar demonstration by forcing Reform and Conservative Jews out of the plaza that fronts the wall. This time, however, hundreds of police, who had been deployed at the site to head off any possible violence, formed a protective ring around the group and permitted the service to continue.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuelik Ben-Ruby said the police had not changed their policies, but merely decided to let the mixed-gender service proceed because the violence directed against the worshipers was less intense then on prior occasions.

“In previous situations, there was a danger to the public. This time we were able to permit them to finish their prayers without being hurt,” Ben-Ruby said. “We are always ready to protect prayer-goers, it doesn’t matter who--although there are political problems we’d rather not get into.”

Whatever the reason, Bandel said he was “grateful for the fact that the Jerusalem police did not surrender to threats of violence and were determined to protect us.”

Conservative and Reform leaders in Israel have been seeking in court to overturn the Orthodox monopoly over religious affairs. In return, Orthodox political parties have vowed to seek legislation to block any changes.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government’s majority depends on the support of Orthodox religious parties, said he would revive efforts to pass legislation that would explicitly ratify one aspect of the Orthodox religious monopoly: power over conversions to Judaism. But members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, said they doubted that the proposal could gain a majority.

The bill seeks to bar the state from recognizing as Jewish those who undergo conversions performed by Reform and Conservative rabbis rather than Orthodox rabbis.

“We’ll oppose the attempts to pass the present bill--even if there is a debate in committee. I believe that there will be no majority to bring it to the floor in this Knesset session,” said Motti Zandberg, a member of the secular-nationalist Tsommet party, which is a member of Netanyahu’s political coalition.

“I’ll oppose it and I’ll vote against” the conversion bill, said Alex Lubotzky, a moderate religious figure who is a member of Netanyahu’s government and has led the fight for a compromise on the volatile issue.

As debate continues over that issue, Conservative and Reform leaders pressed for further accommodations at the Western Wall. The Conservatives are seeking a permanent arrangement for space where mixed-gender services, as well as women-only services, may be held.

A government-appointed commission is looking at possible compromises under a directive from Israel’s Supreme Court.

“We do not demand to be near the [wall’s] stones themselves,” Bandel said, “but in the back of the plaza where there is no division of the sexes, and where men and women mingle already.” His reference was to the broad staging area adjacent to the wall that is open to both sexes but where group prayers generally do not take place.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which represents 875 Reform synagogues, has called for division of the wall.

“This is a sacred site, and it’s up to the Israeli government to assure protection and access to it for all Jews,” he said in a statement issued Monday.

The union submitted a request to the Israeli government that “one section of the wall should be set aside for egalitarian worship,” Yoffie said. “We’re not asking for any specific number of feet.”