Women of the Wall

Women of the Wall, commonly abbreviated WOW and known in Hebrew as Neshot HaKotel, is a multi-denominational Jewish feminist organization based in Israel. It campaigns for women to be able to pray at the Western Wall, or Kotel, according to their own religious practice, including communal singing, wearing a tallit, tefillin and kippah, and reading from a Torah scroll. Its monthly Rosh Hodesh services generally preserve a women-only prayer setting so that participants from Orthodox backgrounds can take part, while also challenging the Orthodox religious norms that have governed the principal prayer plaza. The organization emerged from the first International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem in December 1988. During the conference, Rivka Haut organized approximately 70 women representing several Jewish denominations. Francine Klagsbrun carried a Torah scroll to the Wall, and Rabbi Deborah Brin led the service. After the conference ended, Jerusalem-based participants, including Bonna Devora Haberman, continued meeting at the site and established Women of the Wall as an ongoing movement. Its membership and supporters have included Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and secular Jewish women, with a notable connection to English-speaking and diaspora Jewish communities. WOW’s campaign developed in response to rules and practices enforced at the main Kotel plaza by the Orthodox religious establishment and the Rabbi of the Western Wall. Those arrangements have historically included gender segregation and restrictions on women’s use of religious garments, public singing and Torah reading. The group argues that a public Jewish holy site in Israel should accommodate a wider range of Jewish customs and should not exclude non-Orthodox forms of worship. Orthodox opponents have objected on halachic, communal and public-order grounds, arguing that the services violate the local religious custom of the site and disrupt the experience of Orthodox worshippers. The dispute has produced repeated arrests, demonstrations, political confrontations and court proceedings. Early legal efforts sought police protection and recognition of the women’s right to pray without interference. A series of decisions between the mid-1990s and 2003 moved the organization toward the Robinson’s Arch area, where an alternative prayer site was later opened. In 2002, the Supreme Court briefly recognized broad rights for women to pray and read Torah at the main plaza, but in 2003 it reversed that position and required the government to provide an alternative site. The group continued to challenge the adequacy of that arrangement. The campaign gained renewed national and international attention in the 2000s and 2010s. Arrests of women wearing prayer shawls or participating in the group’s services became recurring news events, while Israeli lawmakers and Jewish organizations abroad joined the debate. In 2013, an appellate ruling held that the women’s practices were not inherently contrary to the local custom and that disturbances caused by opponents could not automatically be attributed to the worshippers. In 2016, the Cabinet approved a plan for a more prominent egalitarian prayer area, separate from the authority of the Chief Rabbinate, although implementation was later suspended. A 2017 High Court decision further limited the government’s ability to treat Robinson’s Arch as the only permissible access point for non-Orthodox prayer. Women of the Wall is not a conventional consumer brand. Its public identity functions as an advocacy and movement brand associated with religious pluralism, gender equality, freedom of expression and the rights of non-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel. Its activities include organizing monthly services, public education, legal advocacy, coalition-building and international outreach. The organization’s struggle has been described as one of the most extensively covered women’s issues in Israeli media. Its continuing relevance reflects the unresolved relationship between Israel’s state-supported Orthodox religious institutions and the diverse Jewish practices represented in Israel and in the global Jewish diaspora.

Women of the Wall began in December 1988 during the first International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem. Rivka Haut organized a group of women from different Jewish denominations for a service at the Western Wall. About 70 women participated; Francine Klagsbrun carried a Torah scroll and Rabbi Deborah Brin led the prayers. After the conference, Jerusalem women led by Bonna Devora Haberman continued to meet at the site and created a permanent organization. From its beginning, the movement combined feminist advocacy with a claim about Jewish religious pluralism. Participants sought to pray as a women’s group, sing aloud, read from the Torah and use ritual objects such as tallit and tefillin. The group attempted to make its services acceptable to women with Orthodox backgrounds by maintaining a women-only framework, but its practices still challenged Orthodox interpretations of appropriate worship at the Wall. Orthodox authorities and many worshippers regarded the services as a breach of local custom and as a threat to the religious character of the site. The organization soon entered a prolonged legal struggle. After incidents involving insults, thrown objects and police intervention, WOW sought protection and recognition of its right to pray without disruption. Government authorities responded that only prayer consistent with the established custom of the place could be permitted. The group petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court, beginning a sequence of proceedings that continued for decades. A 1996 decision directed the state toward an alternative location at Robinson’s Arch, outside the main prayer plaza. The Ne’eman Committee reaffirmed that approach in 1998, but WOW argued that the alternative site had not been properly prepared. In 2000, the Supreme Court required the government to facilitate the women’s religious practices, contributing to plans for a prayer area at Robinson’s Arch, which opened in 2004. The courts continued to reconsider the balance between freedom of religion, public order and the established religious arrangements. In May 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that women could hold prayer groups and read Torah in the women’s section of the main plaza. Haredi political parties responded with proposed legislation that would have criminalized non-traditional prayer practices at the Wall. In April 2003, the Court reversed its earlier position by a narrow majority, upholding restrictions on Torah reading and the wearing of tallit or tefillin in the main plaza on public-order grounds. It required the government to provide an adequate alternative. Arrests and confrontations nevertheless continued. In 2009, a woman was arrested for praying while wearing a tallit. In later years, arrests during the group’s monthly services became a recurring feature of the dispute. In 2010, police detained two Haredi men suspected of throwing chairs at a WOW service. Demonstrations by opponents, public criticism from religious authorities and political interventions gave the issue a national profile. Support also grew among non-Orthodox Jewish organizations and diaspora communities, particularly in North America. In 2012, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky to develop a compromise. Sharansky proposed a prominent egalitarian prayer area, but critics argued that moving the dispute to Robinson’s Arch would leave the main plaza under Orthodox control rather than establish equal access. In 2013, the arrests of women at the Wall and the participation of female members of the Knesset brought the conflict into the center of Israeli politics. A subsequent appellate ruling allowed the group’s services by finding that its practices were not prohibited by the relevant interpretation of local custom when conducted without violence. The Cabinet approved a new egalitarian prayer-space plan in January 2016. Women of the Wall welcomed the decision, but ultra-Orthodox members of the governing coalition opposed it and threatened political consequences. In 2017, the High Court ruled that the government could not indefinitely rely on Robinson’s Arch as the sole alternative and placed limits on efforts to prevent women from reading Torah at the Wall. The government later suspended the 2016 plan. As a result, the organization’s central campaign remains unresolved: it continues to seek a durable arrangement that recognizes women’s and non-Orthodox Jewish groups’ right to worship at the Kotel while addressing the authority of Orthodox institutions and the competing expectations of worshippers. The movement’s wider legacy is its role in making religious pluralism, gender equality and access to Jewish public ritual major issues in Israeli public life and in relations between Israel and diaspora Jewish communities.

• 2017

  High Court limits the government’s alternative-site argument

  [1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  The Court ruled that the state could not simply treat Robinson’s Arch as the only permissible access point for the contested practices.

• 2016

  Cabinet approves egalitarian prayer-space plan

  [1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  The government approved a plan for an egalitarian section at the Western Wall outside direct Chief Rabbinate control.

• 2013

  Appellate ruling permits services

  [1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  An appellate court found that the group’s nonviolent prayer practices were not automatically contrary to the local custom of the site.

• 2004

  Robinson’s Arch prayer site inaugurated

  [1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  An alternative prayer location associated with the legal compromise was opened.

• 2003

  Restrictions upheld at the main plaza

  [1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  The Supreme Court reversed its prior ruling and upheld restrictions on Torah reading and certain religious garments in the principal prayer area.

• 1996

  Court directs the dispute toward Robinson’s Arch

  [1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  A legal decision proposed relocating the group’s prayer services from the main plaza to the Robinson’s Arch area.

• 1988

  Founding prayer service at the Western Wall

  [1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  A multi-denominational women’s service held during the International Jewish Feminist Conference led to the formation of Women of the Wall.

A Jewish feminist and religious-pluralism advocacy organization focused on equal access to Jewish ritual and public prayer at the Western Wall.

• Religious services · 1988

  Monthly Rosh Hodesh prayer services

  Women of the Wall’s recurring services mark the beginning of the Jewish month. They combine women’s communal prayer with singing and, where permitted, Torah reading and the use of religious garments. The services are organized to allow participation by women from different Jewish traditions while maintaining a women’s prayer framework.

• Advocacy · 1988

  Western Wall religious-freedom advocacy

  The organization’s principal offering is a sustained advocacy program seeking legal and practical recognition for women’s equal participation in prayer at the Kotel. It uses public campaigns, coalition work, education, political engagement and litigation to challenge restrictions on women’s ritual practice.

• Education and outreach · 1988

  Educational and community outreach

  WOW communicates the case for gender equality and Jewish religious pluralism to Israeli and international audiences. Its outreach connects local prayer services with broader debates about the status of Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and secular Jews at publicly administered holy sites.

• 2016Egalitarian Western Wall space

  Israel · Global Jewish diaspora

  WOW supported a government plan to create a substantial egalitarian prayer section at the Wall, separate from direct Rabbinate administration.

  Outcome. The plan was approved but later suspended following opposition from ultra-Orthodox political factions and other stakeholders.

  Source
• 2013Monthly services and public visibility campaign

  Israel · United States · Global Jewish diaspora

  Arrests and confrontations during monthly services generated extensive Israeli and international attention. Supportive lawmakers and diaspora Jewish organizations helped frame the dispute as a question of religious freedom and equal citizenship.

  Outcome. An appellate ruling allowed the services under a broader interpretation of local custom, although practical and political conflict continued.

  Source
• 2003Demand for an adequate alternative prayer site

  Israel

  After the Supreme Court upheld restrictions in the main plaza, WOW pressed the government to make Robinson’s Arch a genuine and dignified prayer area rather than merely a remote substitute.

  Outcome. The Robinson’s Arch site opened in 2004, but the organization continued to contest the exclusion of its services from the main plaza.

  Source
• 1988Women’s prayer at the Kotel

  Israel · Diaspora Jewish communities

  The founding campaign asserted that women from multiple Jewish traditions should be able to pray together at the Western Wall with singing, Torah reading and religious garments.

  Outcome. It established an enduring movement and began the organization’s long-running legal and political campaign.

  Source

• 2016

  Support a designated egalitarian prayer sectionStrategy

  Background

  Repeated litigation and confrontations had not resolved whether non-Orthodox practices could take place in the principal plaza.

  Action taken

  WOW welcomed the Cabinet’s plan for a new egalitarian area outside direct Rabbinate control.

  Aftermath

  The plan was suspended after opposition within the governing coalition, leaving the organization’s central demand unresolved.

  Source

• 1988

  Adopt a multi-denominational women’s prayer modelStrategy

  Background

  The founders sought to create a service that could include women from Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and secular backgrounds while directly challenging restrictions at the Wall.

  Action taken

  The organization made recurring women’s prayer services, rather than a single demonstration, the center of its campaign.

  Aftermath

  The model enabled sustained activism but also generated continuing opposition from Orthodox authorities and worshippers.

  Source

• 2017

  High Court challenges government restrictions on women’s Torah reading[1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  Regulation

  The Court gave the government 30 days to establish good cause for prohibiting women from reading Torah at the Kotel and rejected the argument that Robinson’s Arch could automatically be treated as the only access point to the Wall.

• 2016

  Israeli Cabinet approves plan for egalitarian Western Wall space[1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  Regulation

  The Cabinet approved a plan to create a more substantial egalitarian prayer area at the Kotel that would not be administered by the Orthodox Rabbinate. The plan later faced coalition opposition and was suspended.

• 2013

  Women of the Wall receive appellate support for prayer services[1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  Regulation

  An appellate ruling concluded that the group’s practices were not themselves contrary to local custom and that participants could not be held responsible for disturbances caused by opponents when they used no violence.

• 2003

  Supreme Court orders alternative arrangement for Women of the Wall[1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  Regulation

  The Court reversed its earlier ruling and upheld restrictions on Torah reading and certain religious garments in the main plaza, while requiring the state to provide an alternative prayer location.

• 2002

  Israeli Supreme Court initially recognizes women’s prayer rights at the Western Wall[1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  Regulation

  The Court ruled that women could hold prayer groups and read from the Torah in the women’s section of the main plaza, prompting attempts by Haredi political parties to reverse the decision.

• 1988

  Women of the Wall established after a feminist prayer service at the Western Wall[1]Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  Participants in the International Jewish Feminist Conference formed an ongoing organization after holding a multi-denominational women’s service at the Kotel.

1. 1Women of the Wallen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Women of the Wall official websitewomenofthewall.org.il