Upon the End of 25 Years of Deception

For months, as the Women For the Wall fought for the right of women to pray at the Wall undisturbed, we have heard from many, even within the Orthodox community, that really W4W should just have ignored the Women Of the Wall. Or as one pulpit Rabbi put it, “The WOW were not proselytizing anyone, they were not trying to win converts, they were not trying to make a revolution.”

Oops. Actually, they were.

These rabbis, from Shlomo Riskin on down, are now left to contemplate their naivete about WOW. Since they ignored WOW founders Rivka Haut and Susan Aranoff, who wrote (many months ago) in the Times of Israel that the reason WOW must remain at the Kosel is because, in reference to religious women (esp. charedim), they will “change their worldview,” now they must deal with the reality of Anat Hoffman admitting that this poorly-hidden agenda was, in fact, their continuous goal. WOW’s leading cheerleader in the press, Judy Maltz of HaAretz, reported the following after Hoffman’s conference call with WOW supporters, in which she defended their recent decision to move (with a ridiculous collection of conditions, but that’s for another article) to Robinson’s Arch:

Among the factors that brought about the change of heart within the organization, she said, was the realization that changing the mindset of Orthodox Jews was not possible. “Women of the Wall is the right group for bringing about change in Israel but not the right group for bringing about change in the Orthodox world,” she said. “I’m not sure that a group which has members from all the different streams of Judaism is the right one for doing something like this.”

In other words, WOW’s mission statement, claiming that they only want “to achieve the social and legal recognition of our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall,” was never more than a facade for WOW’s true mission, to “bring about change in the Orthodox world.” Having concluded that WOW is not “the right one for doing something like this,” Hoffman has decided to pack out for the greener pastures of Robinson’s Arch, where, of course, they will be able to wear prayer shawls, read from the Torah, and do whatever else they please.

Hoffman also went much further, conceding that a plaza equipped with a mechitzah, 100 Sifrei Torah, hundreds of prayer books and its own Rabbinic authority might, after all, be considered a traditionally Jewish religious space, and that those who use this space regularly have rights, as well:

Our Haredi sisters also have rights, and we saw last Rosh Chodesh that they really don’t want – maybe not all of them, but many of them – do not want to see a woman in a tallit and tefillin, and they also have rights. I think it’s absolutely fine that the state gives the Kotel rabbi absolute authority over the Haredi space.

This quite astounding achievement could not have been brought about without Women For the Wall. They basically saved the possibility of a place for traditional prayer at the Kotel for all of us (on Channel 2, Hoffman once contemplated an era where people would be shocked to learn that there had once been a mechitzah at the plaza)… and along the way, taught a few Rabbis what it means to trust a politician, like the former Meretz Jerusalem City Council member turned religious activist!

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12 Responses

  1. Yossie Abramson says:

    Robinson’s Arch is still the Western Wall, so why does W4W “allow” this? They should be fighting this as well.

  2. Raymond says:

    I do not think that the Women of the Wall are anything but exhibitionists hiding behind religion to achieve their self-centered goals. Thank G-d for groups like Woman For the Wall to combat all that disrespectful nonsense.

  3. joel rich says:

    WOW’s true mission, to “bring about change in the Orthodox world”
    =================================================

    To an outside observer, how would one justify the strong opposition to such a mission while supporting kiruv outreach in secular communities?
    KT

  4. Ori Pomerantz says:

    Yossie, two reasons:

    1. Darchei Shalom. It may not be ideal, but neither is appearing intransigent.

    2. It is still part of the Herodian retaining wall. However, it isn’t a regular place of prayer. What makes the Wailing Wall worth fighting for is that it is used for prayer, overwhelmingly, by Orthodox Jews.

  5. Yaakov Menken says:

    Yossie,

    There are Reform Temples all over. Is there something particularly evil about them praying at the Western Wall? On the contrary, maybe it will inspire someone.

    Joel,

    The problem isn’t their attempt to do “Kiruv” but where and when they choose to do it. No Kiruv organization supports going into a Reform Temple while people are praying, to loudly demonstrate the right way to pray. The 25 years of deception refers to WOW telling the press and public that all they wanted to do was pray (while being set upon by those nasty charedim), while in reality they conducted loud, obnoxious demonstrations intended to get other women to change.

  6. Charles Hall says:

    “No Kiruv organization supports going into a Reform Temple while people are praying”

    I had my first encounter ever with an Orthodox rabbi in a Reform synagogue. Go where the Jews are.

  7. Tzippy says:

    Yossie Abramson, because it had never been part of the Tefillah area. NEVER. So it doesn’t have a din of “shul”.

  8. Susan says:

    NO place at the Wall is really any more/less a “regular place of prayer” than anywhere else. There was nothing keeping these women from paying at the original compromised spot, other than their desire to condescend to Orthodox women.

  9. Moshe Shimon says:

    W4W are truly our heroes (heroines), our front-line of defence against the cancer of deceit and the undermining of our mesora.

    May they go from strength to strength in their holy work.

  10. Reb Yid says:

    ““No Kiruv organization supports going into a Reform Temple while people are praying”

    I had my first encounter ever with an Orthodox rabbi in a Reform synagogue. Go where the Jews are.”

    And this apocryphal Orthodox rabbi was loudly protesting the Reform setting policy for Reform temples? I doubt it.

  11. Ben Waxman says:

    The problem is where and when they choose to do it? I seriously doubt that the righ wing Orthodox/Chareidi world will stand up for the rights of Bnei Akiva, Hillel (the Israeli version), Yesh Atid, or Kolech to set up a stand in the middle of Bnei Brak or Beitar.

  12. Jon Baker says:

    Lubavitch is at 770 Eastern Parkway because the 6th Rebbe wanted to set up shop across from the biggest Conservative synagogue in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Jewish Center (started as an Orthodox synagogue by my great-grandfather in 1918). Go where the Jews are, exactly. In 1940, the Jews hadn’t yet moved to the suburbs.

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