Women of Wall head banned from Kotel

The chairman of the Women of the Wall was banned from the Western Wall for 30 days after being arrested for holding a Torah scroll at the site.

Jerusalem police arrested Anat Hoffman on July 12 following the monthly women’s Rosh Chodesh prayer service. She was taken in for questioning and held for five hours before she was released, the organization said.

An Israeli Supreme Court ruling prohibits women from reading the Torah at the wall; the group said in a statement issued the day of her arrest that she was just holding the scroll.

According to the organization’s account, Hoffman, holding the Torah scroll, was leading about 150 women from the women’s section of the Western Wall in a procession toward Robinson’s Arch, where they are permitted to use the Torah scroll. — jta