Women of the Wall Read from a Torah Scroll at the Western Wall

WOW hold first Kotel Bat Mitzvah in History

Women of the Wall completed the first
ever full Rosh Hodesh (new moon) prayer service and bat mitzvah in the women’s section of the Western Wall today.

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After Women of the Wall’s Torah was banned at the entrance to the public, holy site, an alternate Torah, a tiny 200 year old Torah was brought into the Western Wall, under the radar of theauthorities. This 28 centimeter, 200 year old Torah belongs to John and Noeleen Cohen of London and is certified Kosher (by an Orthodox Sofer Stam). Mr. Cohen’s great-grandfather carried this Torah with him from Lithuania to South Africa in 1880, and he loaned the family heirloom to Women of the Wall. Cohen said, “The purpose of a Torah Scroll is to be read and I can think of no better place for the Scroll to be on Rosh Hodesh Heshvan than at the Kotel, in the women’s section, being read by women who want and have every right, to read Torah at the Wall and, in my view, at every other place that a man can read Torah.”

12 year old Sasha Lutt of Beer Sheva read from the Torah for her bat mitzvah ceremony this morning, completing the first ever full bat mitzvah at the Western Wall. Irina Lutt, the proud mother who moved to Israel from Russian when Sasha was just a baby, looked on and supported her daughter during the ceremony.

Lesley Sachs, Executive Director of Women of the Wall, said, “This morning was historic and emotional for us all. The Torah scroll we used was probably created for just this purpose, for Jews who were banned from publicly celebrating Jewish rituals and ceremonies in the past. We read from the Torah today, in the women’s section of the Kotel, with no disturbances. So the only question remains, why does Rabinowitz, a public servant, try to deny women this right at the Kotel, a public holy site?”

The Torah is central in Judaism and binds all Jews, across denomination, religiously, spiritually, culturally and historically. To deny any Jew access to a Torah scroll, as has been done so many times before throughout Jewish history, is an affront to religious freedom. To refuse women access to Torah has no basis in halakha (Jewish law) and has no place in a public site in a democratic state.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, overseen by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, runs a lucrative and active industry of Bar Mitzvah celebrations for boys at the Western Wall. The foundation offers no such ceremony for girls, in fact Rabinowitz actively prevents any type of bat mitzvah ceremony for girls by refusing women access to Torah scrolls at the holy site. Legally, the April 2013 Jerusalem District Court ‘Sobel Decision’ guarantees Women of the Wall the right to pray freely according to their tradition, which should include Torah scrolls. Rabinowitz has put in place local regulations banning entrance to the Kotel with a Torah scroll and refusing women access to even one of the 100 scrolls held at the Western Wall for “public” use. Women of the Wall maintains their right to read Torah from a scroll at the Western Wall and celebrate bat mitzvah ceremonies at the holy, public site.

For over 25 years Women of the Wall has continued to fight for religious freedom and women’s rights at the Western Wall. As Women of the Wall, our central mission is to achieve the social and legal recognition of our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall.

Photos and video will be available upon request

Contact:
Shira Pruce
Director of Public Relations
+972 (0)546898351
media@womenofthewall.org.il

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