Women of the Wall (Hebrew: נשות הכותל, Neshot HaKotel) is an organization of women based in Israel whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray aloud, read from the Torah and wear religious garments at the Western Wall. The group holds monthly prayer services for women on Rosh Hodesh. The service includes singing and Torah reading, with some of the women wearing a tallit and kippah, which traditionally are considered male attire. These actions have upset members of the Orthodox Jewish community, sparking protests and arrests.
Read more about Women Of The Wall: History, Arrests, Women of The Wall Rationale, Orthodox Opposition, Public Response, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words women and/or wall:
“I had heard so much about how hard it was supposed to be that, when they were little, I thought it would be horrible when they got married and left. But that’s silly you know. . . . By the time they grow up, they change and you change. Eventually, they’re not the same little kids and you’re not the same mother. It’s as if everything just falls into a pattern and you’re ready.”
—Anonymous Mother. As quoted in Women of a Certain Age, by Lillian B. Rubin, ch. 2 (1979)
“Knowledge of Rome must be physical, sweated into the system, worked up into the brain through the thinning shoe-leather.... When it comes to knowing, the senses are more honest than the intelligence. Nothing is more real than the first wall you lean up against sobbing with exhaustion.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)