Reform rabbis hold prayers at Kotel, Noam Party activists protest in egal section

Hundreds of Reform rabbis from around the world took part in Rosh Hodesh events in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, and were met by protesters trying to break up the prayer service near the Kotel.

The rabbis first took part in a “parade of Torah scrolls,” and then joined the Women of the Wall (WoW) movement for morning prayers in honor of the first day of the month of Adar.

During the service, a group of young religious youth, supporters of the right-wing Noam Party, tried to pray at the egalitarian plaza, going so far as to put up a separation barrier between men and women before being escorted out by the police.

The Torah scroll parade took place in wake of Shas leader Arye Deri’s attempt to promote a bill in which it would be prohibited at the Western Wall to “conduct a religious ceremony that is not in accordance with local custom and that hurts the feelings of the worshipers” and to ban women wearing a tallit or tefillin, which could result in a prison sentence. The legislation was quickly dropped.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation said on Wednesday that the “protesters” were joined by Labor MK Gilad Kariv, “who wanted to demonstrate at the Western Wall Plaza against the government.” The foundation added that “they [the Reform movement and Women of the Wall] also tried to bring Torah scrolls into the Western Wall Plaza as a provocative march while denigrating Torah scrolls.” Kariv is a rabbi in the Reform movement.

According to the foundation, the stewards of the Kotel and police “approached this group several times with a request to maintain the local custom and public order to prevent unnecessary friction,” referring to the custom that only allows prayer for men and women separately. “However, this group broke into the holy site, trampling anyone who stood in their way.”

Women of the Wall lead prayer services at Kotel plaza

The foundation also said Kariv “took advantage of his immunity and entered with a Torah scroll leading the group, and led the demonstration to the heart of the Western Wall Plaza, which created a great commotion.” They added that “despite appealing and pleading with him not to inflame the crowd, he did not respond.”

Reform Rabbi Hara Person, chief executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), who was part of the Reform delegation, said, “As a woman, a rabbi, the only woman chief executive in the 134-year history of the CCAR and as a proud feminist, I am bound by my personal values and by my Jewish values to support not only the Women of the Wall but to stand here and proudly hold the Torah for all the women who are told they cannot worship freely and openly at the Kotel.”

She added that “under the most oppressive government in Israel’s history, the rights and dignity of not only all Jewish women but of all inhabitants of Israel must be respected, supported and protected.

According to WoW, “Hundreds came to a festive Rosh Hodesh prayer at the Kotel, and even before that, they held a march, chanting: ‘A woman with a tallit is not a criminal.’”

The movement added that security guards at the Western Wall “forcibly prevented” Kariv from entering “and prevented women from reading from the Torah.”

During the prayer service, “many groups of ultra-Orthodox rioters cursed, tried to repel and hurt the WoW and their supporters. They also whistled in order to overshadow the singing of Women of the Wall.”

Among those at the scene was UTJ MK Yitzhak Pindrus.

Yochi Rappaport, CEO of the Women of the Western Wall, said after the riots that “month after month it is proven that the Western Wall has become the home of an extremist and separatist group in the Jewish people and that millions of Jewish men and women have no place at the Western Wall.

The rabbi of the Western Wall and the government are signaling to Diaspora Jewry, women, liberal Judaism and anyone who does not belong to the separatist ultra-Orthodox faction, that they are not welcome in the holy place for Jews.”

The office of the rabbi of the Western Wall said it is “facing a very complex challenge and is making tremendous efforts... for the removal of the disputes and demonstrations and to keep the place holy and unifying.

Noam members said the police violently evicted dozens of worshipers from the Western Wall’s egalitarian plaza.“Dozens of young people, led by the chairman of Noam Youth organization Binyamin Asher, were forcibly evicted by police forces,” they said.

Noam’s CEO Elkana Babad said, “How is it possible that the right of access to a holy place is reserved only for the Reform demonstrators, while the worshipers are forcibly evicted from the plaza?”

The Labor Party strongly condemned the attack on Kariv’s parliamentary adviser by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation security guards and demanded an apology.