HAARETZ, JERUSALEM POST (Israel)
JERUSALEM – Police on Friday arrested five ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who tried to disrupt prayers by female Jewish activists at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem District Court recently ruled women were allowed to wear prayer shawls during their monthly service, reports Haaretz.
The Women of the Wall activists had been asking form more than 20 years to be allowed to pray at the site while wearing prayers shawls and reading from Torah scrolls.
Their prayer service was disturbed by at least a thousand Haredi ultra-Orthodox protesters on Friday morning.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Haredi protesters spat on the three daughters of Rabbi Susan Silverman – sister of comedian Sarah Silverman – as water bottles, eggs and rocks were thrown onto the praying activists.
Rabbi Silverman told reporters that Haredi protesters represented “a fundamentalism and a belief in a single and very narrow view of god that I believe is idolatrous.”
Women of the Wall prayer at Jerusalem's Western Wall
Two police officers suffered minor injuries in the hustle.
Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister for Religious Affairs Naftali Bennet to find a fair compromise between the religious groups: “I ask everyone: please leave the Western Wall out of any dispute,” he said, reports Haaretz.
