Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 13, 2013

Israeli police arrest American Rabbi Susan Silverman, left, sister of comedian Sarah Silverman, and her teenage daughter Hallel Abramowitz, center, after performing Rosh Hodesh prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, on Feb. 11. (Janos Chiala/AFP/Getty Images)

JERUSALEM A group of Jewish women gathered in prayer Monday at the Western Wall to markRosh Chodesh, the beginning of the new lunar month.

Even as they gathered to pray, police closed in. The women fell to the ground, unwilling to be dragged away.

Police did not want to be seen apprehending women at prayer, so they stepped back, waiting. Only after the service ended did police arrest 10, including three American rabbis: Robyn Fryer Bodzin, Debra Cantor andSusan Silverman, sister of famed comedienne Sarah Silverman.

Their crime? Being women wearing traditionally male religious garb at what is considered the holiest of Jewish sites.

TheWestern Wallis the last remnant of the original Temple of King Solomon, destroyed during the Babylonian invasions. It has been mentioned in Jewish texts since the fourth century and has, under the Law of Holy Places, been de facto designated as an Orthodox synagogue where the sexes pray separately.

The clash between Israeli authorities and the religious activist group Women of the Wall is another sign that the "status quo" between secular Jewish society and the religious-political establishment in Israel is at a breaking point.

The "status quo" was negotiated by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, who offered subsidies to ultra-Orthodox Jewish scholars devoting their lives to study in the wake of the Holocaust. In exchange, the ultra-Orthodox accepted the rule of a civilian state in the place of the Messianic revelation they had hoped for.

Over time, that bargain has fossilized into a knotted system of state-sponsored religious customs that fewer and fewer Israelis are willing to tolerate.

In the push for religious freedom of expression in Israel, the tide may now be turning.

Read the rest here:
Israel: Women reclaim Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall, Sarah Silverman's sister arrested

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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