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Israel Woman Arrested for Holding Torah at Western Wall Concourse

Posted by: Lez Get Real on July 19, 2010.

Melanie Nathan – July 19, 2010

Growing up in the orthodox Jewish Tradition meant the sefer Torah, in all its sacredness, could only be carried and read directly from by Men, barring participation by women.

This served as part of the relegation of women from any possibility or position in prayer and ritual and impacted their inability to be ordained as Rabbis.

Well with the accomplishment, contributions to society and evolution of reform and re-constructionist Jewish movements, often viewed as “nonreligious” for openness of policy and ordination of female Rabbis, the ideal amongst many congregations around the world, has become to afford women equality in prayer and hence an opportunity to carry, read from and have all and any honors equated with the use of the Torah.

So a daunting quest would indeed be one where women could carry and read Torah at the most sacred of all place, the KOTEL, (Western Wall, Wailing Wall to some.)

In Jerusalem Israel, the group Women of the Wall led by its chairwoman attempted to hold a procession in the Western Wall Plaza carrying a Torah scroll, a move which police say contravenes a 2003 High Court ruling prohibiting women from reading from the Torah in the plaza’s public area in the interest of public safety; and so Anat Hofman was held for questioning for several hours yesterday after holding a prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City.

While Jerusalem police questioned Hoffman for four hours, dozens of members of her organization rallied outside the station to protest her arrest. Hoffman was ultimately released after paying 5, 000 Sheckels in bail and agreeing to stay away from the Western Wall Plaza for 30 days.

Rabbi Steven Wernick, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said, “My understanding of the law is that it doesn’t mention anything about carrying a sefer Torah [Torah scroll]. It mentions reading Torah in public [on the women's side] and it mentions wearing a tallit, but not carrying a sefer Torah.

“I am just in shock that on Rosh Hodesh Av, of all days, nine days before Tisha B’Av, that any Jew would be arrested for carrying a sefer Torah anywhere in the Jewish State,” he said. “I think that at the time that our enemies are working to delegitimate the Jewish state, the message of the Israeli establishment is the illegitimization of the liberal streams of Judaism.”