October 27, 2015
With these words MK Eichler represents a very extreme Jewish minority who see the Kotel as their own private synagogue. Women of the Wall’s struggle threatens this “Haredi Kotel” vision, and in his perspective, anyone who does not agree with him is the enemy. If it were up to Eichler, women would be all together excluded from the Kotel or forced to dress up like the Taliban in order to enter. Anat Hoffman, Chair of Women of the Wall praised Prime Minister Netanyahu and MKs Galon and Yechimovich for immediately denouncing these comments. “The next step is to focus efforts on providing bat mitzvah ceremonies, with aliyah to the Torah, for girls at the Western Wall,” Hoffman said.
For 26 years Women of the Wall has led the struggle for religious freedom and women’s rights at the Western Wall. Women of the Wall’s central mission is to achieve the social and legal recognition of women’s right to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall.