Women of the Wall
Israel approves mixed-gender Jewish prayer site at Western Wall
By Reuters — January 31, 2016
JERUSALEM — An Israeli official said the new plaza will take at least a year to complete. Unlike the Western Wall, it will not have a state-employed rabbi, but will be run by a committee.
My top 10 Jewish news stories of 2015 (COMMENTARY)
By A. James Rudin — December 21, 2015
(RNS) From escalating anti-Semitic attacks in Europe to modest gains for religious equality among Israel's Jewish women, here's a list of newsy Jewish developments in 2015.
Let women light Hanukkah candles at Western Wall, Israeli official says
By Michele Chabin — December 2, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) "Preventing the participation of women in state ceremonies, such as the ceremony in our case, just because they are women, is unacceptable discrimination,” Israel's deputy attorney general said.
End ban on women reading Torah at Western Wall, group petitions
By Michele Chabin — November 30, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) An Israeli women’s rights organization says the administrator of the Western Wall lacks the legal authority to withhold Torah scrolls from any Jewish worshipper.
Women of the Wall pluck Torah scroll across partition to women’s section
By Michele Chabin — April 21, 2015
JERUSALEM (RNS) Once the men's service concluded, a female WOW activist stepped into the men's section, grabbed the Torah and took it into the women's section.
Sarah Silverman attends Western Wall Hanukkah menorah lighting in support of women’s rights
By Michele Chabin — December 18, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) For decades, the site’s sole menorah has been lit on the men’s side of the wall, a fact that has angered Israeli and American women’s rights activists.
Jewish girls want to read from the Torah at the Western Wall, new bus ads proclaim
By Michele Chabin — October 13, 2014
JERUSALEM (RNS) Bar mitzvah boys are encouraged to read from the Torah at the Western Wall, but the state-supported Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which is run by Israel’s Orthodox establishment, prohibits girls and women from doing so.
Jewish feminists say they’d accept Western Wall prayer compromise
By Michele Chabin — October 7, 2013
JERUSALEM (RNS) The continued violence, and the government’s long-standing unwillingness to allow Jewish feminists to pray as they want at the Western Wall, has strained relations between the Israeli government and American Jews.
Feminists call temporary Western Wall prayer platform a ‘sundeck’
By Michele Chabin — September 3, 2013
(RNS) While the non-Orthodox leaders welcomed the new platform, which can accommodate 450 worshipers, Women of the Wall called it “a sun deck” designed to marginalize anyone who is not Orthodox from praying at the Wall.
Jewish federations support egalitarian space at Western Wall
By Michele Chabin — June 4, 2013
JERUSALEM (RNS) Under a proposed plan, the Western Wall will include a space where men and women can pray, read the Torah and worship side by side.
Jerusalem court upholds women’s prayer rights at Western Wall
By Michele Chabin — April 25, 2013
JERUSALEM (RNS) Women who want to wear prayer shawls while praying in the women’s section of the Western Wall are not breaking the law, according to a landmark decision handed down Thursday (April 25) by the Jerusalem District Court.
Tensions flare over women’s prayers at sacred Western Wall
By Michele Chabin — April 4, 2013
JERUSALEM (RNS) The ultra-Orthodox rabbi in charge of the sacred Western Wall assured a government emissary that Jewish women will not be arrested if they try to hold prayer rallies at the holy site, despite a warning from Israeli police.
Jews rally around woman arrested for praying at Western Wall
By Michele Chabin — October 23, 2012
JERUSALEM (RNS) Jews from Manhattan to Mozambique held prayer vigils on Monday (Oct. 22) to protest the arrest and incarceration of an Israeli feminist as she was leading 250 American Jewish women in prayer at the Western Wall. By Michele Chabin.
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