Tikkun and our interfaith (and atheist-welcoming) Network of Spiritual Progressives unequivocally support the right of women in Israel to pray in any way they choose at the Wall (site of what is believed to be the ancient Temple), despire the attacks on them by Ultra-Orthodox men who in turn are backed by the Israeli government in their "right" to determine who gets to pray at the Wall and how. The claim of the ultra-orthodox to such a "right" is completely illegitimate. The Wall has historically belonged to the entire Jewish people, and not simply to its men. Yet in the past months women praying at the Wall who have donned prayer shawls (Tallit) and Tefillin or who have attempted to read the Torah aloud have been physically assaulted by ultra-orthodox men and arrested by the Israeli civil authorities for violating the ultra-orthodox restrictions on women's prayer.
Judaism is not the only religion to have corners of reactionry treatment of women, even though in the past it halso had some practices which advanced women's rights far beyond what was avaialble ot women in other religions (for example around divorce). The recent attempts by former Pope Benedict (the former Cardinal Ratzinger) to silence or expel from the Catholic Church American nuns who have championed social justice and called for the ordination of women into the priesthood, and his expulsion from the priesthood of Father Bourgeois for supporting women's ordination, the "honor" slaying of women in some Arab Muslim countries and the denial of many civil ritghts of those women in some Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia, the assault on women's rights to control over their own bodies that has been central to some strands of American fundamentalist Christianity--all represent the tip of the iceberg of continuing discrimination and fear of women in some religious circles. These fears and the new rigidity that they have assumed in the past two hundred years may be a product of the growing resentment many have toward the breaking down of traditional communities by the global capitalist marketplace and its culture of individualism and selfishness. Yet instead of that resentment taking the form of explicit resistance to the culture and economics of capitalism, it takes the totally illegitimate form of patriarchal resistance to women's equality.
We at Tikkun are therefore particularly proud to point to the many in all branches of Judaism who have been speaking out against this discrimination and in particular have championed the Women of the Wall. Particular credit goes to the Religious Action Center of the Reform Movement in Jerusalem and its director Anat Hoffman, but there are important voices in every branch of Judaism now making themselves heard in defense of the rights of women in Judaism. They are highlighted in the statements below as Women of the Wall prepare again to pray at the Wall on the new moon (Rosh Chodesh). We commend all of those in all religions who refuse to accept the distortiong impact of patriarchy, no matter how deeply ingrained in past "tradition" those patriarchal practices have been lodged, and support all attempts to save Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and all other religious traditions from the distortions that such practices inevitably generate. Meanwhile, please read the material below and bring it to the attention of your friends and community.
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[Information below was obtained from a blast from the Shalom Center under the leadership of Rabbi Arthur Waskow who has played an important role in mobilizing for human rights in this and many other domains.]
Rabbis from Five Denominations Call for Protection And Support of Women of the Wall
In 2010, 400 Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal rabbis signed a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and the Jerusalem police asking them to protect Women of the Wall.
For the letter, go to
tinyurl.com/24kv3st
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Orthodox Rabbi, David Kalb, Director of Jewish Education at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life at 92nd Street Y in New York and *International Vice Chair of Rabbis for Women of the Wall* has taken the matter yet further.
“I believe that different types of Jews should have the right to pray at the Kotel (Western Wall) in their own way. I might not personally agree with the way every individual approaches prayer. I might even disagree on very serious Halachic (Jewish legal) grounds. However, the fact that I might disagree or that anyone else might disagree, does not take away from their right to pray at the Kotel. I understand that there might be violence from protesters who oppose women praying at the Kotel as a group of women. I call on all Orthodox Jews in Israel to be at the Kotel on Rosh Chodesh to pray and to put themselves between these protesters and these women who wish to pray to God.”
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