Campaigners from the feminist activism group Women of the Wall (WoW) have succeeded in reading from a Torah scroll at the Western Wall for the first time, in defiance of regulations imposed by the Orthodox authorities responsible for the holy site.
During Monday morning’s Rosh Chodesh prayers, members of the group smuggled the scroll into the women’s section, leyned from it, and danced to the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva.
“Today was my independence day,” said WoW chairwoman, Anat Hoffman. Her group described the act as a historic triumph.
“We celebrated being free in our country and there was not a dry eye in the crowd,” she said.
The scroll in question was one of 100 Torahs stored in the men’s section, and, according to site rules, intended exclusively for prayers led by men.
The WoW event was facilitated with the co-operation of male supporters of the group, who made an opening in the barrier between the sections and slid the scroll through to the female activists.
As the women read from the Torah, the male supporters were attacked by Orthodox worshippers and taken into custody.
The Women of the Wall have faced arrests, court battles and accusations of disturbing public order in their pursuit for gender equality at Judaism’s holiest site. Its members say they act fully within their rights.
A Jerusalem court ruled in 2013 that women were allowed to read from the Torah at the Western Wall, though the group has been unable to do so as the Orthodox establishment forbids women from using scrolls from the men’s section.
“Israel is a state that observes the law, which allows us to pray there, because the Wall belongs to all Jews,” said Ms Hoffman.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, chief of religious affairs at the Kotel, called Monday’s act “blasphemous”.
“This morning, at the outset of the Jewish month of Iyar, the Women of the Wall tore yet another piece of the delicate fabric that surrounds the Western Wall,” he said.
The women’s group hid a miniature Torah scroll in a tallit bag and read from it in the women’s section using magnifying glasses last October, but this was the first use of a full-size scroll.
