Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Women of The Wall, Silverman's Sister Arrested at Kotel
Virtual Jerusalem ^ | 2/11/2013

Posted on 02/12/2013 4:02:58 PM PST by Former Fetus

Ten women participating in a women's prayer service at the Western Wall were arrested for wearing prayer shawls.

Among those arrested Monday morning as they prayed with hundreds of worshipers and supporters were Israeli-American Rabbi Susan Silverman, sister of the comedian Sarah Silverman, and her 17-year-old daughter, Hallel Abramovitz; Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of the Women of the Wall, who has been arrested several times in recent months; and two U.S. rabbis, Debra Cantor of B'nai Tikvoh-Sholom in Bloomfield, Conn., and Robin Fryer Bodzin of the Israel Center of Conservative Judaism in New York City.

The women had gathered at the back of the women's section, as they have at the beginning of every new Jewish month since 1988, for rosh chodesh services for the new Jewish month of Adar. It was the largest number of participants for the monthly event since its inception, organizers told Israeli media.

The women were joined on the other side of the mechitzah, the barrier that separates the sexes at the Wall, by a number of male supporters, including six former Israel Defense Forces paratroopers who had been among those that liberated the Western Wall during the Six-Day War in 1967.

One of the paratroopers was Dr. Yitzhak Yifat of Jerusalem, who was part of the iconic photograph of three soldiers standing at the Western Wall shortly after its liberation. Yifat is the middle paratrooper in the photo by David Rubinger.

The arrests reportedly were made at the end of service, after most of the participants and media had left the Western Wall Plaza. Police had stood on the sidelines as the women prayed and danced in a circle holding their prayer shawls, according to Haaretz.

The women's prayer group moved its Torah reading from the Wall to outside the Old City of Jerusalem Police Department, where the arrested women were taken.

Following the arrest, Sarah Silverman tweeted: "SO proud of my amazing sister @rabbisusan & niece@purplelettuce95 for their ballsout civil disobedience. Ur the tits!#womenofthewall" Silverman's niece responded:"@SarahKSilverman hey auntie, want a copy of my mugshot?"

In 2003, Israel's Supreme Court upheld a government ban on women wearing tefillin or tallit prayer shawls, or reading from a Torah scroll at the Western Wall.

Women participating in the rosh chodesh service have been arrested nearly every month since June for wearing prayer shawls or for "disturbing public order."


TOPICS: Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: israel; kotel; women
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last
As a Christian I don't get it. What is so wrong with women wearing tallit and tefillin? More to the point, what does the Torah say about it? Are only males allowed/comanded to wear them? The way I understand it, Hebrew verbs must match the gender of the subject, so it should be relatively simple to answer that question.

In another article in the Times of Israel the paratroopers are quoted as saying that they "liberated the Old City of Jerusalem so that all people would be free to pray there, not only the ultra-Orthodox". It makes sense to me.

1 posted on 02/12/2013 4:03:11 PM PST by Former Fetus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

I don’t understand. I thought women were suppose to wear a scarf over their head when praying at the wall.


2 posted on 02/12/2013 4:08:39 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

If Sarah Silverman supports it, its probably blasphemous and wrong


3 posted on 02/12/2013 4:10:34 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

I thought they’d invaded the men’s side or something - but they wore prayer shawls?

Is it because prayer shawls are “a garment pertaining to a man” or because they are usurping a male prayer function?

And why is ultra-Orthodox custom writing the law at the Wall, as you ask.


4 posted on 02/12/2013 4:14:33 PM PST by heartwood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

Sarah Silverman = More famous, less funny version of Sandra Fluke.


5 posted on 02/12/2013 4:15:14 PM PST by Viennacon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

Playing Soon:
The Shawlshank Redemption


6 posted on 02/12/2013 4:17:15 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

.. and “Saving Sarah Silverman’s Sister”


7 posted on 02/12/2013 4:18:04 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

Tallit to the judge.


8 posted on 02/12/2013 4:19:38 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

... or is she like the tefillin Don, and will get off scot-free?


9 posted on 02/12/2013 4:20:49 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Viennacon
And much better looking.
10 posted on 02/12/2013 4:21:12 PM PST by hout8475
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

You’d think there would be a sunrise/sunset clause covering this sort of thing.


11 posted on 02/12/2013 4:21:27 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

Why does anyone think she is funny?


12 posted on 02/12/2013 4:23:19 PM PST by Terry Mross (How long before America is gone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Chad N. Freud

You’re the funniest man on this thread!


13 posted on 02/12/2013 4:25:39 PM PST by rabidralph (http://www.cafepress.com/westernwis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

Okay, on a more serious note, a question:

“The women had gathered at the back of the women’s section, as they have at the beginning of every new Jewish month since 1988, for rosh chodesh services...”

“In 2003, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a government ban on women wearing tefillin or tallit prayer shawls, or reading from a Torah scroll at the Western Wall.”

“Women participating in the rosh chodesh service have been arrested nearly every month since June for wearing prayer shawls or for “disturbing public order.”

From 1988 to 2003, the women have gathered and there was no law they broke.
From 2003 to 2013, there was a law, but they didn’t break it. Or else it wasn’t enforced.
From June, 2012, to February, 2013, there was a law and it was at least minimally enforced, perhaps with a fine.
In February, 2013, Obama announced his intention to visit Israel, and the issue suddenly became a human-rights story with at least two media figures (sister of c-list celebrity and soldier in presumably iconic photo).

Hmmm. Democratic spinmeisters feeling bored?

Obama need some political prisoners to facilitate the release of?

I’m totally serious.

Remember those Current TV “reporters” “detained” by Norht Korea and released after Bill Clinton’s personal, “heroic” intervention?

And the theory that Benghazi was a botched kidnapping attempt to give O a boost during the election?

Jeez. If at first, you don’t succeed, eh, Dems?


14 posted on 02/12/2013 4:35:17 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Terry Mross; Viennacon

More famous?

Isn’t she a D-lister at best?


15 posted on 02/12/2013 4:46:22 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Former Fetus

One last question:

What are they trying to accomplish?

Are they trying to change the Orthodox religion? They must know that is not going to happen. Five thousand years of tradition. That can’t be it.

So, are they trying to affect Israel’s government in some way? How?

By painting them as enemies of human rights?

Who would this benefit?

The Palestinians, perhaps? [Isreali women are already ruled out, as noted above.] The Democrats? Obama?

Qui bono?

Nice rack, though. I’m glad they distributed that in order to sway our sympathies her way.


16 posted on 02/12/2013 4:47:46 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Chad N. Freud

Maybe they just want Reformed or other liberal Jewish women to be able to pray as they see fit.

The Orthodox men can pray as they see fit - and they don’t even have to look at women in prayer shawls. The Orthodox women can pray as they see fit but they do have to see women in prayer shawls.


17 posted on 02/12/2013 5:02:20 PM PST by heartwood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: heartwood

Fair enough. That’s a reasonable answer to my question, that hadn’t occurred to me.


18 posted on 02/12/2013 5:06:32 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: heartwood

But then it raises another question:

If Catholic women wanted to attend Mass before the Pope in bikinis or hot pants, would it be a matter of just giving them the right to be able as they see fit to allow them to do so?

I admit this doesn’t seem to me to be on the same level as the case of the women wearing prayer shawls -— but, if it offends the orthodox just as much as this scenario would offend the Pope, is it not a valid comparison?


19 posted on 02/12/2013 5:11:20 PM PST by Chad N. Freud (FR is the modern equivalent of the Committees of Correspondence. Let other analogies arise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

I agree. She is a pig.


20 posted on 02/12/2013 5:27:02 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson