Pushed from the Wall

"Hakotel Shelanu, Hakotel Shelanu!" - "The Kotel is ours!" Who can forget those jubilant words, that ecstatic cry, which we shouted to each other on the streets of New York back in June 1967. Although far from Israel geographically, Diaspora Jews experienced an immediate sense of personal pride and deep connection to Israel and, especially, to the Western Wall, as it returned to Jewish hands. We flocked to Israel, eager to visit the Kotel, proof of our nation's endurance despite the many attempts to annihilate us. The ancient stones were tentatively touched and kissed, tangible symbols of our centuries-old longing for Jewish independence and a spiritual home.

Sadly, after recent distressing events, many Israelis as well as Jews the world over no longer feel that the Kotel is "ours." The Israeli government's capitulation to a fanatic minority has turned many people's pride in the promise of Israel as a safe haven for all Jews, a bastion of freedom and democracy, into bitter disappointment and anger.

How did such a shocking turn of events occur?

Twenty-one years ago I organized a halakhic women's prayer group at the Kotel. Bringing a group of Israeli and Diaspora women to conduct their morning prayers there seemed a wonderful idea. The only difference between that particular service and Orthodox women's services conducted in many mainstream synagogues across the United States on Shabbat and Rosh Hodesh was that the Jerusalem service included women from all Jewish denominations - true pluralism in action. It followed the halakhic practice of Orthodox prayer groups. It took place in the women's section. It was not intended as a minyan. It did include group prayer, singing and Torah reading, all halakhically permitted practices. Our ability to meld a religiously diverse group into a single congregation showed the Jewish world a model of compromise for the sake of unity, a rare example indeed.

We arrived at the Kotel in the early morning, bringing with us a Torah scroll and a small table to put it on. The perfect merging of personal and communal prayer, at that holy site, resulted in a transcendent spiritual experience, giving participants the sense that we were reclaiming the Kotel for Jewish women everywhere, making it truly "shelanu."

Despite being harassed by some Haredi men, all who were part of that experience were transformed by it. Some of the members of Women of the Wall today were with us then and have continued to conduct a women's service at the Kotel for the past 21 years.

But the story of WOW has been a turbulent one. Instead of welcoming us, the State of Israel has tried to banish us from the Kotel entirely, to send the group to another site, out of sight. Regulations were quickly promulgated for the Wall, forbidding women from praying in groups, wearing tallitot and reading Torah. We were forbidden to upset the "sensibilities of the worshipers there."

Recently two women dared to violate these rules, wearing their tallitot over their coats and holding a Torah scroll. They were detained by the police, treated as common criminals, and one was fingerprinted.

It seems that there are some Jews who are so upset about women praying in groups and reading from and carrying a Torah, that they are driven to violence. We must, the Supreme Court ruled, not offend their feelings, so we were exiled to Robinson's Arch, an archaeological site and extension of the Western Wall recently made into a prayer space for egalitarian groups. Women of the Wall still gather at the Kotel every Rosh Hodesh to begin their morning prayers and to recite Hallel. However, they must repair to another location to read the Torah. It has been made clear: The Kotel is not shelanu. It is shelahem - theirs. We cannot share it even for one hour a month.

Why are some Haredi men driven to verbal and physical violence by women praying together and handling Torah scrolls? Perhaps this awakens a deep seated fear of female autonomy, spirituality, witchcraft, taboo.

Many Haredim view public prayer and Torah reading as male activities. Women pray to God privately, not in groups. The phenomenon of Women of the Wall conducting their own services in the absence of men, reading Torah, singing Hallel, threatens the Haredi way of life.

We love Israel and dare not criticize her to the larger world, at a time when enemies surround us and our dominion over Jerusalem is challenged. And yet, how can we sit passively by when discrimination against women is legalized, when religious freedom for Jewish women is compromised? The Supreme Court has demanded that we act like Marranos at the Kotel, mute our voices, hide our tallitot, camouflage our Torah.

The pain this and similar actions are causing many Jews cannot be underestimated. Diaspora support should not be taken for granted. Before our eyes, thousands of conversions are delegitimized, rabbinic courts oppress agunot, women are being sent to the back of buses. Though small in number but great in courage, the Women of the Wall are trying to remain strong, to carry on with their prayer services despite the efforts to intimidate them. They cannot lose this struggle, for it would be a blow to Israel as a democratic state. The eyes of Jews the world over are intently focusing on the treatment of WOW, wondering when we will be able once again to cry out in joy "Hakotel shelanu, Hakotel shelanu."

Rivka Haut is co-editor with Phyllis Chesler of "Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site" (Jewish Lights, 2003), and co-editor with Adena Berkowitz of "Shaarei Simcha" (Ktav, 2007).