On Jan. 23, 2012 at 7:00pm Prof. Pnina Lahav gave an incredible lecture entitled: The Woes of WOW: The Women Of the Wall as a Metaphor for Israel-Diaspora Relations. The lecture was a part of the The Diane (Dina) Markowicz Lectures on Gender and Human Rights series. Check out the transcript of the lecture and for video click here.
The Women of the Wall are interesting because they are themselves a metaphor for something very important concerning Israel/Diaspora relations. That, I believe, is the most important insight I have to offer.
Let me also offer a qualification. Throughout this lecture I refer to the Orthodox. I mean those Orthodox who are in power in Israel today, and who yield their power in order to promote the agenda of segregation. However, we should be aware that orthodoxy is not monolithic. There are many Orthodox, in Israel and in the diaspora, who recognize the value of gender equality and who lament the recent developments. At the moment their voice is neither heard nor followed. But they are our natural allies and we should respect them and hope that they eventually prevail.