Wake up for Religious Tolerance! Rosh Hodesh Nissan Solidarity Minyan in Support of Women of the Wall
Inspired by the arrests of New York area rabbis and so many others, Jews of all denominations are coming
together for a Rosh Hodesh Nissan Shacharit prayer service, in a public place in downtown Manhattan, at about 9 AM on March 12. Together, the group will demonstrate their support for religious tolerance at the Kotel! Precise time and location to be announced soon, upon issuance of an NYC permit.
In the organizers own words, “Rosh Hodesh Nissan marks the month of our liberation, and of our first becoming b’nai Yisrael, one Jewish people. We should all feel violated when one of us has to smuggle Jewish religious articles in order to worship at the Kotel – and have to focus our prayers – on not getting caught. We should all feel imprisoned when one of us is apprehended by Israeli police for the crime of wearing a tallit. After all, the police don’t ask a tallit wearing woman to which denomination she belongs when they take her into custody.
The crime is wearing a tallit while being a woman. Let us pray together, joining our voices in prayer and song.
Please RSVP and share on Facebook!
Participants and leaders in the service will include Jews from all four denominations:
- C. Shayna Postman, Cantor of Town & Village Synagogu
- R. Robyn Fryer Bodzin, one of the “Kotel Ten”, apprehended by police at the Kotel on Rosh Hodesh Adar, Rabbi of Israel Center of Conservative Judaism
- R. Debra Cantor, of the “Kotel Ten”
- Hallel Silverman, of the “Kotel Ten”, daughter of R. Susan Silverman and niece of comedian Sarah Silverman.
Participating Organizations:
- Congregation Ansche Chesed
- Sutton Place Synagogue
- Israel Center of Conservative Judaism
- Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel
- Women of the Wall /Nashot haKotel
- Society for the Advancement of Judaism
- Jewish Theological Seminary
- Congregation Rodeph Sholom
- Town and Village Synagogue
- East End Temple
- Kane Street Synagogue
- Women’s Rabbinic Network
- Hebrew Union College
- Rabbinical Assembly
- National Council of Jewish Women, New York section
- Mechon Hadar
- Bet Am Shalom Synagogue
- Women’s League for Conservative Judaism
Each day and sometimes twice a day, the name Iris Richman pops up in my inbox. I open the message and read of the status of the permit and the names of who is joining us and as we get closer to the Nissan minyan the names are coming in not by ones but by threes. We have Rabbi Iris Richman and her committee to thank for creating this event.
Ellie