By David Ogul
SAN DIEGO — It’s all about equality.
That was the message from Cheryl Temkin, an executive member of the Speakers Bureau for the Jerusalem-based Women of the Wall, who was the featured speaker Nov. 16 at Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego following Kabbalat Shabbat services.
Just months after Israeli paratroopers liberated Jerusalem’s Old City and its Western Wall, during the 1967 Six-Day War, Orthodox authorities secured authority over the Kotel, installed a mechitzah to segregate men and women, and began implementing Orthodox interpretations of religious custom that kept women from donning talitot, wearing tefillin or reading from the Torah. Women of the Wall, comprising women from all branches of Judaism, has been on the front line in trying to change the rules.
“Last Wednesday in the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem there was a rare show of unity,” Temkin said at the beginning of her address, which consisted of a detailed recounting of Women of the Wall’s history. “It was certainly a unique experience: 20 lawmakers banded together in a meeting entitled ‘It’s Time for Equality.’ Post-Pittsburgh, they showed up to express their solidarity with Jews everywhere, and specifically to show support for the non-Orthodox Jewish movements. There were actually even two members of the ruling Likud party in attendance. Several of the lawmakers spoke. And listen carefully to the words of Mr. Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party: ‘So long as women can’t pray at the Western Wall as they see fit and so long as there is no change in the conversion law, we’re doing an injustice to ourselves.’
“That’s quite a recognition of a relatively young but vibrant Women of the Wall organization that has existed for only 30 years. So let’s take this opportunity tonight to look back, to delve into Women of the Wall’s origins and see why WOW has become such an important player in Israel’s current environment.”
Women of the Wall evolved when Anat Hoffman, attending 1988’s First International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem, brought a Torah scroll for women at the Kotel to read from on Rosh Chodesh, considered by many, including Orthodox Jews, as women’s holiday. Despite being beaten by angry ultra-Orthodox men, a group of women have continued to gather at the Wall on Rosh Chodesh, demanding equality in prayer and religious custom.
The turning point came in 2012.
The following is an oral history as told by Temkin at Tifereth Israel Synagogue.
“October 2012 was supposed to mark a milestone – Rosh Chodesh Heshvan coincided with the Hadassah Centennial Convention being held in Jerusalem. So, as Hadassah prepared to celebrate its one hundredth birthday, their official printed program stated that the Hadassah delegates would show up at the Kotel on Wednesday morning, October 16th at 7 a.m. to celebrate the New Month with Women of the Wall.
“And in October 2012, I had also returned to Jerusalem, in large part because my brother and sister-in-law were going to be in Israel and my sister-in-law Barbara was actually a Hadassah Convention delegate.
“So, I volunteered with an organization by the name of Skilled Volunteers for Israel. And what was my assignment? I was to serve as a liaison between Women of the Wall and Hadassah. That should have worked just fine except for one big hurdle – suddenly Hadassah backed out of their commitment!
“For whatever reason, perhaps they feared arrests or there had been some kind of political pressure brought to bear, but in any event – they canceled!
“Now oddly enough I was able to arrange for a film crew from Israeli television to come film a segment on Women of the Wall.
“Now obviously you can’t just phone Kol Yisroel, the Israel Broadcast Authority, and order a film crew – so how I pulled that off involves a bit of personal history.
“In August 1968 I left the University of Wisconsin-Madison for my junior year abroad. I arrived in Jerusalem and within a few short weeks I met an Israeli fellow by the name of Nissim Mossek, who had just been released from the army. Nissim had served as a paratrooper so I really swooned. I ended up following him around for a full year and learned great Hebrew as a result.
“Now after many years of losing track of each other, we’re back in touch, just over 50 years later! And although everyone always told me he’d never amount to anything, today Nissim is a well- known documentary filmmaker who worked for many years for local television as well as Reuters.
“So when I told Nissim about my volunteer gig, he said that if the ladies were interested he’d ask for a budget and a crew and they’d film a segment about Women of the Wall.
“I, in turn, approached Anat Hoffman, the chairperson, and she was thrilled. You have to recall that up until that time WOW had had very little publicity in Israel itself and the women were very anxious to get their message out to the locals.
“So that was the only bright spot, and it was set up that even without Hadassah the film crew would still show up for Rosh Chodesh Heshvan on that Wednesday morning.
“But in the end there was a compromise: Hadassah did finally agree to allow some of their conventioneers to come to the Kotel on Erev Rosh Chodesh, Tuesday night, October 15th, about 11 p.m. That was after all the day’s Convention events had concluded.
“So about 10 p.m. on that fateful evening, a few of us volunteers gathered at the Women’s Section. The plan was to distribute song sheets and hopefully persuade some of the delegates to don a Women of the Wall tallit, just like the one I have here, and then we could take their picture at the Kotel.
“However as soon as we arrived, the police, who at that time were under the jurisdiction of the Western Wall Religious Authority, started filming us from the get-go. They instructed us not to pass anything out, not even song sheets with David Melech Yisrael written on them. We also weren’t allowed to write anything down. Our protests fell on deaf ears.
“Meanwhile the first bus of Hadassah women arrived at 11 p.m. Their driver had been specifically instructed to turn back around in a half hour. Therefore we didn’t even wait for the following four busloads.
“Anat Hoffman spoke briefly and thanked the Hadassah women. She showed off her Women of the Wall tallit and demonstrated how she would be instructed to wrap it as a scarf around her neck in order to avoid arrest.
“After her brief remarks, Anat instructed one of the HUC cantorial students to begin singing ‘Shema Israel.’ After the first two words of the Shema, a policeman led Anat Hoffman away, in handcuffs. The next several hours were tortuous.
“Anat was subject to intense interrogation and was shackled and handcuffed. At one point she was dragged from bench to bench and suffered significant bruises on her wrists. At 3 a.m., Anat was transferred from the holding pen in Jerusalem’s Old City near the Jaffa Gate to the women’s prison in Jerusalem’s Russian quarter. She was thrown into a cell with a car thief, along with a Ukranian-born prostitute who spoke no Hebrew, and a drug dealer. She was given no blanket and had only her Women of the Wall tallit to keep her warm.
“And you can only imagine her fellow prisoners’ amazement when they inquired as to why she had been detained and she replied, for singing Shema Yisrael.
“About noon the following morning, Anat was brought to court, still shackled and handcuffed, looking extremely weary and pale. The television crew was on hand to film her as she was led into the courtroom. One of the crew asked her point-blank what she had to say and she only just gave them a brief nod. Turns out that she had been warned that she could not speak to anyone and so she was simply too frightened to respond. Anat never resisted at any point during her detainment. The judge, who was probably aghast at this whole circus, dismissed her with a prohibition to stay away from the Kotel for 30 days and pay a fine of 3,000 shekels.
“Additionally in the early morning hours following Anat’s detainment, about 25 of us gathered at the Wall at 7 a.m. to daven Shacharit, our regular monthly prayer service. The Kol Israel television crew was there in full force and was able to document additional arrests as Lesley Sachs, our executive director, and Rachel Cohen Yeshurun, an active WOW board member, were led away. Needless to say, it made for riveting viewing. It was just a case of being in the right place at the right time. Having the television crew there ended up making a huge impact.
“That 11-minute video was shown on Kol Israel in January 2013 and it came as a shock to the bulk of the Israeli populace. For the majority of viewers who watched it, it was their first exposure to this organization. They saw a small group of maybe 25 to 30 women, wrapped in talitot, with few Israelis among them. They were incredulous to see the footage of chairs being hurled into the women’s section and attempts to grab prayer books right out of the women’s hands.
“Among the viewers that night were some of the original 1967 paratroopers who had liberated the Wall and in unison they yelled ‘gevalt.’ They loudly proclaimed that they did not liberate the Wall to have it turned into an Ultra-Orthodox synagogue.
“Subsequently at the next Rosh Chodesh celebration several soldiers from that 1967 paratrooper brigade showed up to support the women. Also on that early February morning was a very healthy turnout of Israeli women, many of them younger. Suddenly the group took on a very different hue.
“But there were still arrests. Among the women detained in February 2013 were Rabbi Susan Silverman, a Reform Rabbi living in Jerusalem, and her 17 year old daughter Hallel. And it just so happens that they are the comedienne Sarah Silverman’s sister and niece.
“Of course after that the publicity snowballed. Thus from that time on, it became a true cause celebre.”
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Ogul is president of Tifereth Israel Synagogue and a former editor with the San Diego Union-Tribune,