International Federation of Reform and Progressive Religious Zionists

December 2009 Blog Posts (3)

Women of the Wall - Update from Anat Hoffman

Dear Friends of IRAC,

Last Friday, Rosh Chodesh Tevet, 153 women found it in themselves to get up early on a wretched, rainy, and miserable morning and walk to the Kotel, for what could be – following Nofrat Frenkel’s arrest one month prior – an unpredictable morning of prayer.

We were women of all ages and denominations, gathered together under a canopy of bright umbrellas that looked especially vibrant on a gray day. We stood at the back of the women’s section to pray,… Continue

Added by Dalya Levy on December 22, 2009 at 1:40pm — No Comments

Women of the Wall Fight On

Challenging Traditions at the Heart of Judaism

By Isabel Kershner, The New York Times, December 21st, 2009

JERUSALEM — A struggle for the character of the Western Wall, this city’s iconic Jewish holy site and central place of worship, is under way, and it is being fought with prayer shawls and Torah scrolls.

On Friday, sheets of rain obscured the Old City’s ancient domes. But by 7 a.m. about 150 Jewish women had gathered at the Western Wall to pray and to… Continue

Added by Dalya Levy on December 22, 2009 at 1:37pm — No Comments

The Shawl and the Hood - Rabbi Michael Marmur

We should all be relieved - a great disaster has been averted in the heart of Jerusalem. A woman was arrested yesterday for causing a heinous threat to public order. She was carrying a document so subversive that it has been suppressed and vilified for thousands of years. She also donned an item of ritual wear so provocative that if she had not been stopped by the authorities there might have been cataclysmic results.

The criminal in question was a highly suspicious type, and she arrived… Continue

Added by Dalya Levy on December 6, 2009 at 1:17pm — No Comments