By Helen Grossman, NCJW Legislative Team

I can pinpoint the exact moment I realized that I needed to take a stand for women’s rights and equality in the United States and abroad: the moment I was forced to confront the fact that the dream of women’s equality is not yet fully realized.

On a cold, rainy December morning last year, I stood with hundreds of women at Israel’s Western Wall — Judaism’s most sacred site. We gathered to quietly conduct a morning service, held each Rosh Chodesh, the first day of every new Hebrew month, coordinated by the organization known as Women of the Wall. Though quiet, our service that morning at the Western Wall continues to echo within me.

Women at the Western Wall are forbidden to wear clothes deemed “offensive” to the ultra-Orthodox, establishment that controls Israel’s religious law; wear prayer shawls (tallitot) unless they are hidden underneath layers of coats; sing or worship openly so as not to disturb the prayers of the men across the partition; or read from the Torah. So, the minute that we started singing our morning prayers, the ultra-Orthodox men beyond the partition began to protest. They screamed at the top of their lungs and hurled insults that hurt deeply. We kept praying, even as the chorus of yells from behind the wall grew louder. We refused to let their actions distract us from our religious experience.  I recall thinking that if my singing was offensive to this holy site, they must realize that their name calling and violent anger was, too. This loud protest continued, as we went from the Western Wall around to Robinson’s Arch, where women can read the Torah legally. I had never had part of my identity challenged like this before; never been told that I couldn’t practice religion in the way I deem fit; never been told that I am not allowed to participate solely because I am a woman.

On the morning of July 12, 2010, Anat Hoffman, leader of Women of the Wall (with whom I had the opportunity to worship), was arrested at a Rosh Chodesh service for carrying the Torah at the Western Wall — an act that is not illegal, according to the prohibitive Israeli law that forbids women from reading from the Torah at the Western Wall. This outrageous turn of events has reminded me once again that working toward a more just world where women can live freely is in my hands. Anat Hoffman is challenging unjust policies in the great tradition of peaceful change-makers. She is making Israel, safer for all Jewish women, and her arrest has already inspired conversations at the Knesset about changing the policy at the Western Wall. As an American Jewish woman, I am proud to stand alongside Anat Hoffman and NCJW to ensure that all Jewish women and non-Orthodox Jews can worship freely at the most holy site in our religious tradition. 

Editor’s note: Read NCJW’s statement “NCJW Shocked by Arrest of Women of the Wall Leader in Israel” to learn more about Anat Hoffman’s arrest on July 12, 2010.