December 1: Women at the Wall

Seventy Jewish women attempted to pray with a Torah scroll at the Western Wall on this date in 1988. When they were interrupted and harassed by Orthodox guardians of “the rules” (which forbids women to pray out loud, sing prayers, wear tallitot or tefillin, to blow a shofar, or carry or chant from a Torah scroll), the Israelis among them resolved to continue to meet to pray at the Wall every Rosh Hodesh (new moon observance). Women of the Wall have faced verbal and physical assault, arrest, and legal wrangling for twenty-one years. Meanwhile, writes Judith Rosenbaum at the Jewish Women’s Archive, “the ultra-orthodox . . . become increasingly outrageous in their attempt to control public space, expanding gender segregation on public buses that serve religious neighborhoods, on sidewalks in religious areas, and most recently planning to make Jerusalem psychiatric hospitals single-gender.”

“[W]e don’t know whether 10 or 100 women will show up each month — though we hope for 10,000. We have no uniforms, as we are a pluralistic group and come from all streams of Judaism. As far as strategy, we are only as bold as our least brave member.” —Anat Hoffman