Woman Arrested For Carrying Torah Near Western Wall

Michele Chabin
Religion News Service

JERUSALEM (RNS) An Israeli feminist was arrested Monday (July 12) when she carried a Torah scroll at the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism.

Jerusalem police detained Anat Hoffman, co-founder of the Women of the Wall, for five hours, fined her $1,300 and ordered her to stay away from the Western Wall for 30 days, according to the statement released by Hoffman's group.

Hoffman was arrested during a procession from the Wall to Robinson's Arch--a secluded section of the Western Wall where the Israeli Supreme Court permits women to read the Torah. The court ruled that women are prohibited from reading from the Torah at the Wall itself because doing so goes against traditional norms of Jewish prayer and could incite ultra-Orthodox Jews to violence.

Eyewitnesses said Hoffman held a Torah scroll while leading 150 women in song but did not read from it.

Carrying a Torah does not violate the law, the Women of the Wall insisted, and urged advocates of religious pluralism to support Hoffman.

The incident occurred on the same day the Israeli parliament took steps to approve a contentious law that would codify the Orthodox establishment's control over all matters related to conversions to Judaism.

Until now, Orthodox jurisdiction over conversions has not been legislated, and Reform and Conservative Jews have successfully petitioned the High Court on behalf of some converts.

Non-Orthodox Jews in the U.S. have lobbied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky to stop the bill from passing.

"We cannot divide the Jewish people with legislation which many in the Jewish world view as defining them as second-class Jews," Sharansky said in a statement Monday.

"I hope the prime minister will send a clear message that this proposed legislation will not move forward without proper discussion and consultation with all those who feel they may be harmed by it," Sharansky said.

Comments

[Oracle75]

12:21 AM on 07/29/2010

I read the headline and couldn't figure out why this woman would be arrested. I am surprised to read that an Israeli court would bar women from reading from the Torah because some zealots might get violent. So now I see there is an Israeli Taliban. I am shocked and not amused.

[knightinNYC]

12:39 PM on 07/24/2010

Religious extremism in the Middle East is not confined to Muslim observance. Culturally, Israel seems to more and more represent this very odd duality (as do we in the U.S. in some more puritanical way, I suppose). Its treatment towards women is a testimonial to how genuinely they believe we are ALL living in a modern age century of equal footing, not an Iron Age one of slavery and subjugation.

[yadalaus]

04:01 AM on 07/24/2010

I see someone is still living from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

[researcher]

01:31 AM on 07/24/2010

religion religion religion

oh the pitfalls of religion

truly part of the greatest ignorance of humankind.

not that there are not great mysteries but look at the underlying reality of phenomena.

there you will find more truths than all the religions combined.

[citizen1787]

11:47 PM on 07/21/2010

"Hoffman was arrested during a procession from the Wall to Robinson's Arch--a secluded section of the Western Wall where the Israeli Supreme Court permits women to read the Torah. The court ruled that women are prohibited from reading from the Torah at the Wall itself because doing so goes against traditional norms of Jewish prayer and could incite ultra-Orthodox Jews to violence."

What a "great democracy", truly modern and progressive.

[KCM7]

10:13 PM on 07/21/2010

" The court ruled that women are prohibited from reading from the Torah at the Wall itself because doing so goes against traditional norms of Jewish prayer and could incite ultra-Orthodox Jews to violence."

Perhaps the ultra-Orthodox Jews should be banned until they are capable of acting like adults.

But of course, this is an Abrahamic religion...everything is the woman's fault.

[abdallac]

05:56 AM on 07/23/2010

Actually that's pretty funny...sadly, however, it often seems true enough even with the best intentions.

[LanceThruster]

08:24 AM on 07/25/2010

"could incite ultra-Orthodox Jews to violence."

This is an interesting admission in that any violence from the Arab/Muslim/Palestinian side is always seen as unwarranted and is supposed further proof of their violent nature and propensity to resort to violence as a preferred choice of action.

Possible ultra-Orthodox violence, or previous cases of violence where their religious sensibilities were outraged (a woman who wouldn't move to the back of the bus was assaulted and spat upon, cabbies working the Sabbath have rocks thrown at them - btw, wouldn't chucking rocks be considered "work" as well?) are seen as prompted by the actions of others and treated almost as if the ultra-Orthodox had no other choice in the matter.

The world would be a much better place if peole quit pretending that they are justified in acting as proxies for their supposed god(s). It shows a lack of faith on their part that their diety can handle dealing with it sans their assistance.

[thomas paine]

10:05 PM on 07/21/2010

Maybe the US should invade Israel to restore freedom to their people and get a hold of those weapons of mass destruction!

Oh wait, sorry, wrong country.

Shame on me for forgetting the US makes excuses for certain people because significant portions of believers of said religion happen to exist in certain key states.

What a shame.

[ipv4]

04:06 PM on 07/21/2010

What a joke , people up in a frenzy over myths.

[Ghost Dance 2010]

05:38 AM on 07/21/2010

Religion is dumb.

[butler28]

10:37 PM on 07/20/2010

This story is just another glaring example of the misogyny and hypocrisy so deeply ingrained in so many religions. Yet another reason I look forward to the end of religion world wide it is still hundreds if not thousands of years away and I wont live to see it but it is coming. Every day more people wake up after taking a look at all the nonsense perpetrated in the name of religion and the various gods worshiped around the world and say no thank you. We live in an age of reason and science and all this bronze age mythology belongs in our past with Zeus, Odin and Ra.

[KCM7]

10:33 PM on 07/21/2010

Agree with almost everything...except the last word.
Ra is real. Look in the sky, there he is, shining down on us with all his benevolence. The fact church goers attend services on SUNday is no coincidence;)

[Dabo415]

05:03 PM on 07/22/2010

"Ra" is also a way of anthopomorpizing the sun. Which is just silly.

[Mwenda Kobia]

04:17 AM on 07/23/2010

Unfortunately, its a fabric of human society that is here to stay. Who knows which Abrahamic religion will survive the next thousand years- perhaps Scientology will evolve into a major religion... If its not deities- something will replace it... perhaps it will be opposing schools of thought on the big bang!

I can just see it now... "Are you a Hawking? or one of those crazy Einsteins?" lol!

[MrNCN]

02:32 PM on 07/23/2010

KILL THE HAWKINGS!!! BURN THE HERETICS!!!

[gflorence]

04:19 PM on 07/20/2010

What is this thing that organized religions have with women? Woman arrested for carrying Torah near Western Wall. Catholic Church makes it a grave sin to ordain a woman. The list goes on. I'm not a Catholic or a Jew. I'm just a guy, and I'm really embarrassed about all of this.

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

04:40 PM on 07/20/2010

Religions don't like that women can create life (true it needs some input from a man but most of the work is put in by the woman).

[Eric in Ayden]

12:45 AM on 07/21/2010

They get it from the Bible.

[Ryan Delnick]

04:00 PM on 07/20/2010

You gave these people nuclear weapons america.

[Mum]

06:20 AM on 07/21/2010

What does that have to do with the subject of the article?

[Ryan Delnick]

09:56 AM on 07/21/2010

Religious theocracy pretending to be a secular democracy. You gave them nuclear weapons. Stupid move.

[Ron Adam]

11:37 PM on 07/28/2010

I think a Jew gave us the Bomb.

[PedroLeon]

02:17 PM on 07/20/2010

I take no joy in this story. It smacks so much of the theocratic extremism we often read about taking place Iran or Saudi Arabia. When will the world learn that religion and politics make terrible bedfellows?

[Hank007]

10:15 AM on 07/20/2010

So she was literally arrested, for carrying a religious book to a religious site of that same religion. This type of sexist, religious discrimination cannot be tolerated, and any regime practicing it must be stopped before they get WMD.

[Samuel Perry]

11:16 AM on 07/20/2010

WMD? Oh..you mean nukes? Israel has nukes. They have helluva nukes. Can we stop using WMD as an acronym? Bush is over and done, lets not bring him up again except to discuss what lawyer he might hire to keep his arse out of the Hague.

anyway, Keep the church out of the state.

[PedroLeon]

02:18 PM on 07/20/2010

Word.

[MrNCN]

02:44 PM on 07/23/2010

funny but, anything they had, have, or ever will have by way of WMD did, does and will come from the good ole US of A. Go TEAM USA!

[Toothbrush]

09:38 PM on 07/28/2010

Actually, Israel's nukes came courtesy of France.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

08:30 AM on 07/20/2010

This is a good primer about religion and all of it implications.What a waste of people ,time and money.To think that around the world governments and people legislate about the boogeyman.I can understand how this is a feminist issue,but I can't understand why a woman would want to be part of a religion that has behaved in this manner for centuries.Let me correct myself,I can't understand why anyone would want to be part of any religion.Can you imagine if all this religious energy were applied to just helping people in need,without some litmus test to prove oneself worthy of being helped?I'm sorry, but my thoughts on this are too provocative continue.I know there are very good people involved in many different religions,but I can't help myself for thinking it's insane to believe in something nobody can prove ever existed.The scale of this with its differing beliefs worldwide is staggering,yet it continues.

[StevenM]

08:57 AM on 07/20/2010

Re: "I can't understand why anyone would want to be part of any religion."

It is your lack of understanding. The fact is she values her religious tradition enough to want to change it.

[Mum]

06:21 AM on 07/21/2010

Amen. Excellent point.

[WolfmanZ]

01:57 PM on 07/20/2010

>> I can't help myself for thinking it's insane to believe in something nobody can prove ever existed

Do you think that an ant could even possibly understand a huge (human) foot suddenly coming down in front of them? What is this thing that disappears as suddenly as it appears?

Even more to the point, consider a two-dimensional universe, a simple plane. All of a sudden a circle appears, lasts for a while and disappears. Can a two-dimensional being understand that a three-dimensional object just passed through its plane of existence?

Belief in G-d requires a 'leap' of faith, as they say. We cannot contemplate G-d, as G-d is outside of our plane of existence, but we can contemplate the effect that G-d has on our existence. Of course, you may chose to believe that circles randomly appear and disappear. That's your choice.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

06:16 PM on 07/20/2010

"consider a two dimensional universe"..........

I'm hearing "The Twilight Zone" theme........get back to reality.

[Fburfel]

10:18 AM on 07/23/2010

God,if there is one, has no discernible effect on our existence. There have never been any circles that appeared and disappeared without a NATURAL explanation. People do contemplate god all the time, it is called theology.
Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. [Robert A. Heinlein, JOB: A Comedy of Justice]