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Update: Women of the Wall Activists Shoved, Spat On During 30th Anniversary Event

[additional-authors]
March 8, 2019
The Western Wall

Protests broke out at the Western Wall on March 8 when thousands of women who were part of the egalitarian group Women of the Wall were reportedly spat on and shoved by ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The ultra-Orthodox men and women tried to prevent the Reform group from praying at the site; the service marked the 30th anniversary of Women of the Wall and coincided with International Women’s Day.

Women of the Wall is a feminist prayer group that advocates for equality of worship at the Kotel.

One of the women coming to pray alongside Women of the Wall was Rabbi Laura Geller of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills. Geller has been a supporter of Women of the Wall since its origin and said she’s never seen anything like this in all her years attending services at the wall.

“I once had my tallis confiscated, there has been lots of time where there has been harassment but I have never personally experienced direct violence but it was really bad,” Geller told the Journal Monday adding it was “so bad that for the first time in 30 years we stopped prayer in the middle of hallal, and we evacuated ourselves out which was miraculous in itself.”

Currently, there are three sections at the Wall: a female-only side, a larger men-only section and, since 2000, an egalitarian section south of the main plaza where men and women pray together.

Orthodox Judaism prohibits men and women from praying together.

According to the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation, 6,000 Charedi protesters gathered to protest the 150 female activists of Women of the Wall.

Geller said busses of orthodox men and women showed up that morning to harass the women and men who were supporting the women’s group. The rabbi added that it came from billboards and posters of the new Israeli conservative group Hazon encouraging followers to protest.

One flyer read, “Reform Jews at the Kotel? That’s not normal! The question of whether, on Friday, there will be sanctification of God or, God forbid, the opposite, depends on the attendance of each and everyone of you, and your encouragement of friends and family to join and organize additional shuttles! Below are a list of subsidized shuttles, and contact people. Sign up in advance! Hazon: Setting a Jewish agenda in the country.”

“What we were doing ‘which was offensive’ was praying out loud, wearing tallit, wearing tefillin,” Geller said. “Those behaviors initially, it wasn’t legal to do because the wall is essentially an ultra-Orthodox synagogue. But it is now legal. It is legal for women and most recently on March 6, the day before Rosh Chodesh, the attorney general sent a letter to the rabbi of the wall saying it is not a violation of local customs. So nothing we were doing was illegal.”

In a statement, Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz said, “the Western Wall plaza is not a…demonstration area and asked [for attendees] to refrain from provocations, and to guard the Western Wall as a unified place, and not a place of division.”

Police intervened and the wall worshipers said they were spat on and shoved by girls attending the religious seminaries, the report from Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation said. The Women of the Wall activists moved to the egalitarian plaza, known as the Ezrat Yisrael section, to prevent further backlash.

New York Times reporter Bari Weiss, who attended the Women of the Wall event at the Kotel, tweeted: “I had never been spit on in my life before this morning — when I went to the Kotel to check out Women the Wall. Turns out their opponents are *really* into spitting.”

Police confirmed a 20-year-old ultra-Orthodox man had been arrested after he tried to attack an officer in the area, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“We are not at war,” Women of the Wall wrote on Twitter. “We just want to pray as we believe.”

This story was updated Monday, March 11 to incorporate quotes from Rabbi Laura Geller. 

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