Reform women rabbis' prayer at Western Wall draws wrath of ultra-Orthodox

[IndianaGreen]

The Jewish version of the Taleban strikes again at the women rabbis! Remember what Karl Marx said about religion?

Reform women rabbis' prayer at Western Wall draws wrath of ultra-Orthodox

By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent

North American female rabbis from the Reform Movement stirred up controversy at the Western Wall Wednesday, when they defied Orthodox Jewish customs by praying and singing aloud while wearing prayer shawls and skull caps at the holy site.

The women, who are in Israel for a gathering of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, arrived at the Western Wall at about 7 A.M. along with members of the Women of the Wall organization, which regularly organizes prayers at the site for ultra-Orthodox, Reform and Conservative women.

"There were about 70 of us praying when someone from the men's section started shouting that 'a woman's voice is lewd' and that our singing was offensive," said Anat Hoffman, an activist for Reform Judaism in Israel who attended the prayer. "I was ashamed in front of the guests from America."

Jackie Ellenson, one of the visitors who attended the prayer, told Haaretz that several ultra-Orthodox women then approached and demanded that the Reform prayers remain quiet and that the women rabbis take off the shawls and skull caps.

The Orthodox women, according to Hoffman, called the police after presenting themselves as the Western Wall "chastity keepers."

"These chastity keepers were loud and very rude, but there was no violence," Hoffman said. Hod Hasharon's chief Ashkenazi rabbi, Reuven Hiller - an outspoken critic of the Reform Movement - called the act "an unnecessary provocation," adding, "They may pray in their synagogues with shawls but why come to a place revered by all sects and offend people there?"

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067028.html

[bemildred]

1. So what are they going to do about it?

How fearful is their wrath? What the heck is a "chastity keeper" anyway? Are women supposed to be incompetent to run their own lives? Who appointed the "chastity keepers" to meddle in womens lives anyway?

[IndianaGreen]

2. "The ultra-Orthodox movement does not own the Wall."

Ellenson - the wife of Hebrew Union College President David Ellenson - also noted the Wall was sacred to all Jews in explaining the prayer.

"The ultra-Orthodox movement does not own the Wall," she said. "All Jews own it."

This is not the first time this has happened. The point is to continue to challenge the fundies across the board. Hurrah for the American women rabbis!

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Hurrah indeed!

[bemildred]

4. Yeah, somebody needs to acquaint these Rabbis with their own impotence. nt

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. All that happened was a lot of noise...had it been Islam and Mecca, there would have been stonings

[oberliner]

5. Muslim women should try something like this at Mecca

Pray alongside the men. Refuse to be segregated!

Perhaps this will inspire them.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Key point...In Iran they would have been stoned or shot as women with loose morals

[IndianaGreen]

7. Like house slaves were better treated than field hands?

Where is your moral compass?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. You clearly do not understand the differences between Haredi vs Whabbi in their treatment of women

[IndianaGreen]

10. They are both misogynists, equally deserving of our scorn

and it misses the point as to why Israel should be a secular state for Jews, rather than a theocratic Jewish state. It is incidents such as this that make me sympathize with the likes of Avigdor Lieberman who, even though he is a racist, hates the religious oppression with a purple passion.

Did I ever tell you what was Stalin's only endearing virtue? He didn't have a religious right problem!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. You can not discern a significant difference between them?

[IndianaGreen]

12. To the oppressed it makes little difference ("women voices are lewd")

It is like asking if we would prefer to find ourselves in Mussolini's Italy or in Hitler's Germany. Germany would be a certain death sentence, while Italy would give us a slim chance of avoiding death.

Personally, I rather see all the oligarchs in the Middle East toppled by their angry people, including the Saudi royal family and the Mubarak regime.

[cali]

13. actually, it makes a huge difference

the degree of oppression between how women are treated in Israel and how women are treated in Saudi Arabia or Iran, is markedly different. It's not remotely like a choice between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

[Shaktimaan]

14. Really?

You see the practical day to day reality of living in a theocratic state like Iran vs a liberal democracy like Israel as comparable to the difference between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy?

Really?

You see no difference between getting yelled at by some nobody in a kipa and being arrested, beaten, jailed and possibly executed by the authorities? No difference between brusque religious friction in a free democracy and total religious control imposed by a Kafkaesque institution that you have no opportunity to change, escape from or resist?

Germany would be a certain death sentence, while Italy would give us a slim chance of avoiding death.

Right. Just like how in Israel we would be certain to get yelled at while Iran would give us a slim chance of avoiding death. Or how about this one... In Israel, someone might throw a rock at you, while in Iran you might be sentenced by a court to be stoned to death.

Probably not though. Only one woman is currently waiting to have her stoning sentence carried out in Iran. And she was convicted for prostitution. (Prostitution that her husband forced her into so that he could support his heroin addiction, that is. So it's clearly a punishment that's reserved solely for the worst of the worst.)