TORAH PROCESSION: AN ACT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
WOMEN OF THE WALL WILL MARCH TO THE KOTEL ALONGSIDE WORLD JEWISH LEADERS CARRYING TORAH SCROLLS
Women of the Wall will march towards the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site tomorrow morning, Rosh Hodesh Heshvan, accompanied by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Steven Wernick, President of the North American Conservative Movement and hundreds of supporters who are in Jerusalem for an international summit.
Representing world Jewry, the march will be led by a line of ten Jewish leaders, including Women of the Wall Chair Anat Hoffman, carrying Torah scrolls, demanding to pray as equals at the Wall.
In line with the discriminatory practices of the Western Wall rabbi, Women of the Wall expects to be stopped by police when attempting to bring holy texts to the Wall.
This unprecedented act of civil disobedience was prompted by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s failure to implement the Western Wall Agreement passed by his own government in January, 2016. The historic document, achieved after three years of negotiation among all parties, is the first to guarantee equal rights to prayer for every Jew who yearns to pray at the Western Wall.
Anat Hoffman “We anticipate that the sight of hundreds of Jews prevented from reaching the Western Wall will move the prime minister to action. He is a hairbreadth away from an historic solution to the conflict at the Western Wall. It boggles the mind that Mr. Netanyahu, who decries any international attempt to delegitimize our historic ties to the Western Wall stands between world Jewry and an equitable arrangement guaranteeing every Jew the right to pray freely.”