In the wake of the Israeli government’s historic announcement on Sunday, Jan. 31, that a new, expanded egalitarian prayer space would be opened up at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, spoke to the press from Pasadena.
Israel\’s government on Sunday approved a compromise to expand the non-Orthodox Jewish prayer section of the Western Wall, putting to rest the decades-long fight between Women of the Wall and Israel\’s haredi Orthodox religious establishment.
The Women of the Wall group vowed to continue reading from the Torah in the women’s section of the Kotel in the wake of a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Charedi Orthodox parties that it still would not be allowed.
About 100 women gathered at the Western Wall to light Chanukah candles.
The rabbi of the Western Wall apologized that a woman was turned away from the holy site for wearing a kippah, but said he was not familiar with the incident.
A male supporter of Women of the Wall was arrested after trying to pass a Torah scroll to the women’s section of the Western Wall during prayers for the new Jewish month.
A man was trampled. A raucous protest broke out, restrained only by police.
Women who defied Western Wall Plaza rules by bringing a small Torah scroll there were allowed to finish praying.
Several public buses featuring photos of young women wearing kippot and prayer shawls were vandalized in Jerusalem.
It’s not common for a society to undergo a mindset shift in the space of four months. Yet that’s exactly what happened in Israel this summer.
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