Israeli Supreme Court to rethink ruling to let women pray at Wall

The landmark ruling capped an 11-year legal battle by the feminist group Women of the Wall.

The state maintains that the presence of the group, whose members wear tallitot and read aloud from the Torah during their service, would represent a significant shift from accepted prayer ritual at the site.

The state has also argued that the women's prayer services could pose a threat to public safety and to the sensitivities of Orthodox worshippers.

In recent years, such services sparked violent protests by fervently religious Jews.

Earlier this year, Orthodox legislators initiated bills to bypass the court's ruling. One bill would sentence women to seven years in jail for reading from the Torah, blowing the shofar or wearing a tallit at the Western Wall.

Other legislators have suggested a compromise under which the women's group would not pray at the main plaza of the Western Wall, but would hold its services at Robinson's Arch, at the holy site's southern end.

During Sunday's hearing, Jerusalem's police chief, Yair Yitzhaki, cautioned the court that the women's services could prompt disturbances and even bloodshed.

The justices plan to resume deliberations after touring the Wall site to familiarize themselves with the situation there.

Although the court is re-evaluating its earlier decision in favor of the women's group, Jerusalem City Councilwoman and Women of the Wall member Anat Hoffman said the group is prepared to accommodate the sensitivities of other worshippers.

But she said it would not yield on its insistence to pray at the Kotel.

For this reason, she said, the group has rejected the compromise offer to hold its prayer services at Robinson's Arch.