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Jerusalem police arrested a woman praying at the Western Wall for wearing a tallit.
The woman, identified as a medical student from Beersheba, was participating in Rosh Chodesh services. She was arrested Nov. 18 based on an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that the public must dress according to the customs of the site, Israel Radio reported.
Police came to the site after the Women of the Wall group asked to read from a Torah scroll, according to reports. The group usually holds its services at Robinson’s Arch, located near the Wall.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Western Wall rabbi, called the group’s actions “an act of provocation that seeks to turn the Western Wall into disputed territory,” according to reports.
The chairwoman of the women’s group, Anat Hoffman, said it was the first time that a woman has been arrested at the Western Wall for donning a tallit. — jta
/u/40572Check out these 2 photos:
Opening the new Women of the Wall Torah scroll at the Kotel: http://twitpic.com/pz4rs
Nofrat Frenkel leaving police custody wearing talit holding Torah scroll after being held for two and a half hours: http://twitpic.com/q3eaz
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11/19/2009 at 03:50 PM
This arrest is appalling! To think that Israel has freedom of religion for everyone except Jews.
As a committed Conservative Jew I made aliya in 1964. I participated in the 1967 Six Day War that saved Israel from destruction even though I had come to the conclusion that Israel was a bigoted country when it came to non-Orthodox Jewish practice. Because of that and other factors I returned to California after the War and didn’t visit Eretz again for 40 years.
On that visit I was very upset that the situation was no better, and probably worse, in that regard. My Israeli brother deals with that by being truly secular, which is not my lifestyle at all.
Now I see that my wife was prescient in feeling that she was unwelcome at the Wall even without her hand-made lace tallit that she wears at daily and Shabbat services at our Conservative synagogue where we are very active members.
I guess that I was right in my 1967 feelings that I would rather be a Jew in American than an American in Israel.
Peretz Moshe Kanafi a.k.a. Phil Kane Congregation Neveh Shalom Portland, OR.
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