Resolution Adopted by the CCAR
The Women of the Wall
Adopted by the 101st Annual Convention of
the Central
Conference of American Rabbis
Seattle, Washington, June
1990
Background
“The Women of the Wall” is a religiously diverse group
composed of Israeli women and
other
Jewish women living in Israel. The group first started going to the
Western
Wall, the Kotel, in January
1989. The women sought to continue the practice begun
by participants in the first International
Conference of Jewish Feminists in Jerusalem,
who held the first women’s service. All ensuing
services have been in strict accordance
with Jewish law (Halacha
). The group’s chief purpose and objective was and
remains spiritual expression and
mutual support to help each member enhance her experience of
prayer at the holy
site.
The prayer services have been the target of
ultra-Orthodox violence, which the Ministry
of Religion and the police have tolerated and, in
the former case, even rationalized.
Shocked by this collusion with violence, the Israeli group
initiated a lawsuit before the Supreme Court of Israel to assure the
right of Jewish women to group prayer,
in peace and dignity, at the Western Wall–something we thought
had been secured for
all Jews in
June 1967′. The International Committee for the Women of the Kotel,
Inc.
has recently initiated a
parallel, supporting suit. (The ICWK has regional branches
in New York, Philadelphia, California,
Sweden, and
Israel).
This case promises to be a landmark in the
history of religious rights struggles in
Israel. It is the only case ever to be argued on behalf of the
religious rights of
Jewish women.
But the struggle is for all Jews, not only for women’s rights: it is
a struggle for human rights, Jewish
pluralism and the dignity of the State of
Israel.
After receiving from the Court a seven-and-
one-half month delay in proceedings for
the stated purpose of promoting mutual understanding–during
which time the women
were barred
from wearing prayer shawls, reading from a Torah, or most recently
from
even raising their voices–the
State published (end of December 1989) its response to the
women’s suit: a new ruling by the Religion
Ministry prohibiting, on pain of imprisonment
and fines, any “unaccustomed religious ceremony
which offends the sensibilities of
worshipers regarding the (Holy Place.)” Framed explicitly to
bar the women from prayer,
this
arbitrary ruling institutionalizes what State religious authorities
have maintained
all along: that the
Western Wall is the preserve of the ultra-Orthodox, who may suffer or
prevent the worship of other Jews, not even according to the mandates
of
Halacha
. but at will. It rewards the violence by
protecting the “sensibilities” of those
who have thrown metal chairs, pushed, kicked, and bitten Jewish
women at prayer,
shrieking into
their ears as they prayed, while turning the women into criminals.
This outrageous, discriminatory
enactment should shame the Minister of Religion, Zevulun Hammer,
and the Minister of Justice, Dan
Meridor, who authorized and signed it.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the CCAR encourage its members
and their constituencies
to support
the Women of the Wall by writing to the Ministers of Religion and
Justice,
the Prime Minister, the
Chief rabbis, public figures, and President of Israel about
a. Bat mitzvah
ceremonies at the Wall–something
now forbidden;
b. Women having
the option of joining prayer groups at the Wall;
c. Women holding and reading a Sefer
Torah;
d. The impropriety of Jews barring other Jews from
praying at this holy place in peace
and dignity;
BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED that the CCAR, its members, their organizations and
congregations
contribute, through
ARZA, KADIMA, and IRAC, to help pay for legal costs and for publicity
to take the women’s cause to the
Israeli public and to the Jews of the world.