Israel's ultra-Orthodox protest women's prayer at holy site

JERUSALEM — Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered astatine the Western Wall successful Jerusalem to protestation against a Jewish women’s radical that holds monthly prayers determination successful a long-running run for sex equality astatine the site.

For decades the “Women of the Wall” radical has campaigned for equality of worship astatine the wall, 1 of Judaism’s holiest sites. Israel’s spiritual institutions are dominated by the ultra-Orthodox, who are opposed to immoderate changes astatine the site, wherever men and women commune successful abstracted areas.

The quality has sharpened since the swearing-in of a caller authorities successful June pushed Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties into the opposition. A recently elected lawmaker who is besides a Reform rabbi has utilized his parliamentary immunity to bring Torah scrolls into the women’s conception successful defiance of rules enforced by the ultra-Orthodox administrators of the site.

Police acceptable up metallic barricades and deployed successful ample numbers to clasp backmost the mostly antheral protesters, who blew whistles and occasionally surged guardant lone to beryllium pushed back. The women carried bare mantles utilized to cloak Torah scrolls to protestation the prohibition connected bringing the scrolls themselves into the women’s section.

Anat Hoffman, the laminitis of the group, said they are “fighting for equality and spiritual pluralism and justice.”

“We cannot work from the Torah successful the women’s conception successful 2021,” she said. “Why not? Why the hellhole not?”

The protests were called for by ultra-Orthodox leaders, including Aryeh Deri, caput of the Shas party. In a tweet connected Friday that was shared by erstwhile Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Deri called connected his supporters to travel retired “so that eden forbid this beatified spot is not desecrated.”

Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi and recently elected parliament subordinate from the center-left Labor party, had planned to bring a Torah scroll into the tract for the women to usage but called disconnected his sojourn astatine the petition of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who sought to forestall struggle astatine the site.

Netanyahu had shelved plans for an egalitarian supplication abstraction astatine the partition successful 2017 nether unit from the ultra-Orthodox parties who are politically allied with him.

The determination infuriated adherents of much wide strains of Judaism to which astir Jews successful North America adhere. The quality has been a large constituent of friction betwixt the 2 largest Jewish communities successful the world, successful Israel and the United States.