Women of The Wall - Women of The Wall Rationale

Women of The Wall Rationale

The Women of the Wall claim a right to worship at the Kotel in an organized fashion, and have presented their position in terms of equal rights for women, rights of religious liberty, and religion and state in Israel.

As Women of the Wall organizer Phyllis Chesler explained:

When a woman demands to be treated as a human being, even if she defines her humanity as (only) a "separate but equal" place at her Father's table, whether she's a "good" or a "bad" woman, she is viewed as a brazen revolutionary. We asked for our rights under civil and religious law. When we prayed, other worshipers, both men and women, verbally and physically assaulted us. We asked the Israeli state to protect us so that we could exercise our rights. The state claimed it could not contain the violence against us, and that we ourselves had provoked the violence by "disturbing/offending" the "sensibilities of Jews at worship." Women are not seen as "Jews" or as "worshipers" with "sensibilities."

What makes this line of reasoning difficult to swallow is that Israelis have continued to administer time-sharing access to the Cave of the Patriarchs at Hebron, a site holy to both Moslems and Jews, even after Baruch Goldstein shot 29 Moslems at prayer. Authorities could do as well on our behalf at the wall.

Many secular and otherwise enlightened people underestimate the psychological importance of organized religion. I am a liberation psychologist, engaged with the world's mental health. Therefore I know how important it is for both women and men, Jews and non-Jews, that women begin to claim sacred ground in spiritually autonomous and authoritative ways.