Rosh Hodesh Nissan has set new records for worldwide Women of the Wall solidarity and support! Thank you and kol hakavod to the organizers who have made this possible! It is no coincidence that the day on which you stood up for us was also the day on which we prayed at the Kotel with tallitot and tefillin without arrests or police intervention for the first time since 2010.
We would like to share two of the many recent international examples of your important work:
Washington, DC Friends of Women of the Wall
More than 200 protesters of all denominations gathered Monday evening outside the Israeli embassy in
Washington, DC to show their support for Women of the Wall and for religious pluralism. Women dressed in tallitot and read openly from prayer books while being accompanied by guitars, tambourines and clapping. The Israeli embassy took a supportive stance towards the group and an embassy spokesman gave a statement: “The Foreign Ministry understands that World Jewry, in all its pluralistic diversity, claims the Kotel as the heritage of the entire Jewish people, not the bailiwick of the few.”
Jewish Daily Forward: American Jews Launch Protests for Women’s Right To Pray at Western Wall
Wake Up for Religious Tolerance! in New York City
Over 400 people joined at the Town and Village Synagogue on East 14th Street on Tuesday morning to pray and express their solidarity with Women of the Wall. Included in this group were everyone from Reconstructionist to Orthodox leaders who advocate for a woman’s right to pray however and wherever she chooses. This New York minyan was striking not only because of its size, but also because of its palpable air of protest among women who proudly proclaimed their status as activists. According to Miriam Cantor-Stone, an intern at Lilith Magazine who partook in this historic event, “The service had the air of a protest…without the hostility you usually see at protests.”
Jewish Daily Forward: This video says it all.