[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[TeachESL]

I thought you might like to see how Jewish women are fighting for equality in Judaism within Israel. If you feel this is not suitable for this site, I won't do something like this again.

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Jewish women fight holy war
Feminists demand the right to pray aloud at Jerusalem's Western Wall,
despite the threat of jail and attacks by Orthodox men

Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Monday January 5, 2004
The Guardian

Peggy Cidor concedes that she is not a radical feminist's idea of a
radical feminist.

All she seeks, for now at least, is to pray aloud at Judaism's holiest
site for a few hours a year. But a campaign by Ms Cidor and dozens of
other Jewish women for sexual equality at the Wailing Wall threatens to
change the face of the Orthodox religious establishment in Israel.

Ms Cidor is a member of Women of the Wall, an organisation launched 14
years ago to challenge centuries of tradition that permits only men to
wear shawls and speak prayers from the Torah at the wall. But the
organisation's broader aim is to break the grip of men over Orthodox
religious practices that, among other things, exclude women from
becoming rabbis.

"We are radical feminists. Some of us are Orthodox in our religious
beliefs, some of us are reformist. But we are all radical feminists,"
said Ms Cidor. "Judaism has no dogmas; you can interpret it. We say the
Torah has at least 70 interpretations, so why not a feminist one also
that says we don't need men to represent us before God?"

But Orthodox members of the Israeli parliament have now drafted a bill
to amend an existing law that regulates behaviour at holy places, to
include a prison sentence for women wearing a prayer shawl or reading
aloud from the Torah near the Wailing Wall. They originally proposed a
seven-year jail sentence, but this has now been changed to three years.

In their campaign to pray aloud at the wall the women say they are
rejecting only convention because there is no prohibition in Jewish law.
Until the police and courts waded in, about 30 women would gather in
front of the wall once a month to pray for an hour.

"Some of the Orthodox men spat on us, beat us, threw rocks," said Ms
Cidor, who was born into an Orthodox Jewish family but has since moved
to the reformist wing of her faith.

"Many many women we meet there hush us when we start to pray out loud,
because they believe it is forbidden by religious law. When we said the
men couldn't hear us from their part of the wall, one of the rabbis
answered: 'The wall hears you and it is offended'."

Jonathan Rosenblum, director of the Orthodox organisation Am Echad and a
vocal opponent of the Women of the Wall, agrees there is nothing written
in Jewish law preventing the women from praying as they wish.

"Not everything they do there could you find an explicit prohibition
for. That's beside the point," he said. "At holy sites throughout the
world, visitors show respect for the traditions of the place. Billy
Graham, for instance, would not think of conducting a revival meeting in
St Peter's Square, nor would anyone demand the right to enter a mosque
wearing shoes."

The women's struggle was dragged before the Israeli courts. In May 2000
the high court ruled that the women had the right to pray as they wished
and told the government to organise it. The then Labour government
appealed.

Last April the supreme court reaffirmed the women's right to pray aloud
at the wall, but said that because it upset the Orthodox community they
should not be allowed to do so in front of the Wailing Wall. Instead,
the court told the government to prepare a separate place for the women
next to an archaeological site, away from the main wall.

"The court has rewarded the bullies," said Ms Cidor. "They are offering
us a place to pray in an archaeological site where rocks from the
destruction of the temple by the Romans have been in place for 2,000
years. We want to be a part of the larger public. Why should we be
hidden?"

While the immediate argument has focused on what happens in front of the
Wailing Wall, the women's real target is male domination of the Orthodox
community.

"Women of the Wall is considered a very very radical group because we
say we don't need men to represent us before God and I can think of a
lot of men who don't like that idea," said Ms Cidor. "We are a very
serious threat to them and they understand it."

Mr Rosenblum accuses the Women of the Wall of using the holy site to
push a political agenda that he believes may ultimately split the
Orthodox movement.

"They have introduced something from the outside -feminism - to try and
change what has stood for thousands of years. If they continue with this
I think women's issues could well be the chink in the armour that leads
to a dramatic split among those who consider themselves Orthodox," he
said.


Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

[stefania]

THAT'S GOOD.. ALTHOUGHT I AM NOT RELIGIOUS AND I AM SECULAR, I AM HAPPY THAT THEY ARE ACTIVE FOR THEIR RIGHTS.. HOWEVER,ISRAEL MUST RESIST AS THE ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST..

VIVA ISRAEL..
_________________
Referendum AFTER Regime Change

"I'm ready to die for you to be able to say your own opinions, even if i strongly disagree with you" (Voltaire)

[TeachESL]

However, there is something/someone outside of this earthly world we live in; and he/she/it wants us to be good to each other.

[doritolover]

GO FEMINISTS GO!