{"id":1454,"date":"2013-04-08T16:29:38","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T20:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/discoveriesofawanderer\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2013-04-08T16:29:38","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T20:29:38","slug":"women-challenge-the-rules-at-israels-wailing-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/discoveriesofawanderer\/2013\/04\/women-challenge-the-rules-at-israels-wailing-wall.html","title":{"rendered":"Women Challenge the Rules at Israel’s Wailing Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve traveled to Israel and have seen the Western Wall – or Wailing Wall – in person. It’s an extraordinary experience, and while I was there I had to separate from the men to the “Women Only” section. I was surprised to learn that this custom of\u00a0separation\u00a0was introduced so late in history – it only started it’s modern form of gender\u00a0separation\u00a0in 1968.<\/p>\n

<\/object>Recently,\u00a0Rabbi Elyse Frishman was among four women who were arrested in December after wearing a tallit (a prayer shawl) at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The gender discrimination women face in Israel is intolerable, said Frishman. She explains further: “In 1968, the orthodox rabbinic created a mechitza, which is a separation between men and women at the Western Wall. And the understanding here in a very traditionally observant manner, in an orthodox manner, is that men are obligated to pray. Women are not. The Orthodox have deemed this site to be a synagogue.”<\/p>\n

“As we drew near, there\u2019s a security gate that you need to walk through. And within a couple of minutes, a policeman came up to me and asked me to take my tallit off. They took my passport. They fingerprinted me. They took my photograph. And they wanted me to sign a statement that I knew why I was being detained and I understood. And I refused.”<\/p>\n

Certain parts are reprinted with permission from Odyssey Networks<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve traveled to Israel and have seen the Western Wall – or Wailing Wall – in person. It’s an extraordinary experience, and while I was there I had to separate from the men to the “Women Only” section. I was surprised to learn that this custom of\u00a0separation\u00a0was introduced so late in history – it only…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":235,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,26,3],"tags":[342,218,343],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-middle-east","category-videos","category-womens-rights","tag-israel","tag-judaism","tag-the-western-wall"],"yoast_head":"\nWomen Challenge the Rules at Israel's Wailing Wall - Discoveries of a Wanderer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/discoveriesofawanderer\/2013\/04\/women-challenge-the-rules-at-israels-wailing-wall.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Women Challenge the Rules at Israel's Wailing Wall - Discoveries of a Wanderer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve traveled to Israel and have seen the Western Wall – or Wailing Wall – in person. 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