Egalitarianism in Israel: Protests at the Western Wall

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-ultra-orthodox-jewish-feminist-international-women-s-day-western-wall-wailing-wall-jerusalem-1.7001785

Yesterday morning, I planned to pray שחרית (morning services) at the Western Wall in support of Women of the Wall, a group of women dedicated to gender equality in their practice of Judaism; however, the holy space of the Western Wall soon became a place of conflict when thousands of Haredi Jews violently protested the Women’s service. I wasn’t able to attend the prayer service due to the lack of safety, but regardless, this turn of events was a devastatingly accurate representation of conflicts between different sects and denominations of Judaism in Israel right now.

Women of the Wall is a group of Israeli Jewish women who have come out against Israel’s perceived mistreatment of women at the Western Wall. The Western Wall is the holiest place in the world to Jews, but since it is owned by a political administration which adheres to Orthodox religious values, the Women of the Wall, from an egalitarian point of view, are subjected to gender and religious inequality.

In Orthodox practice, women aren’t obligated to pray or to study Judaism, whereas men are. Already, those who observe Orthodoxy see women’s prayer as less holy than men’s, which justifies the women’s section being half the size of the men’s at the Western Wall. Furthermore, because the Western Wall follows Orthodoxy, women are taunted for wearing tallit or wrapping tefillin, and they’re legally prohibited from read torah at all. These values are all important parts of prayer to Jewish men. The Women of the Wall connect to Judaism through these mitzvot; however, due to a combination of unique circumstances yesterday, the Women of the Wall actually had to relocate in order to finish their service.

There were several unique factors that contributed to the chaos of yesterday's events: International Women's Day, Rosh Chodesh (the start of a month on the Jewish calendar), the 30th anniversary of Women of the Wall, and the tension of election season in Israel. Political tension in Israel is high due to the upcoming election, which, depending on the results could threaten political representation of Orthodox values at places like the Western Wall. Due to this tension, the Haredi authority called upon thousands of Ultra-Orthodox women to protest Women of the Wall this morning, and ended up gathering around ten thousand women, along with many more Haredi men. The Ultra-Orthodox protesters cursed and spat at the women who were in the middle of their service, and many went so far as to physical attack them. Many egalitarian women left the holy site with bruises covering their bodies and scratches on their skin.

This event was shocking, especially since I had planned to attend before we knew of the violence. I wasn’t really aware of the internal clashes and conflicts between sects and denominations of Jews in Israel before living here. Most of what I’ve found the western world sees of Israel has to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict, but from this event especially, it's obvious that many other interesting and complex issues exist here. There have been other sectional conflicts between different Jewish beliefs that I’ve observed as well, like secular Jews vandalizing a Haredi shul’s torah. Learning about these conflicts during election season is especially interesting, and this event just adds a deeper level of complexity to this multidimensional country.

Links about the protests at the wall:

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-ultra-orthodox-jewish-feminist-international-women-s-day-western-wall-wailing-wall-jerusalem-1.7001785
https://www.timesofisrael.com/women-of-wall-forced-to-move-service-amid-violent-ultra-orthodox-protest/