Please send the information immediately to your all of your email lists with a request that ALL Jewish women take a photo of themselves holding a Torah Scroll and upload it and sign a letter at http://womenofthewall.org.il/solidarity, and all rabbis, cantors and other Jewish leaders join us in helping to spread the word. See below for the official Women of the Wall response to today's horrific news. Please let everyone know that this women's campaign will continue until Simchat Torah and that it is imperative to participate before then.
Thank you for your immediate attention to this important matter.
L'shana tova tikateyvu v'teichateimu,
Rabbi Pam Frydman Baugh and
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Supporters of Women of the Wall
September 6, 2010
Police Recommend Pressing Charges Against Anat Hoffman while Rabinowitz Tightens his Grip on the Western Wall
Jerusalem, Israel- This week brought with it more attempts to vilify Women of the Wall and protect the Western Wall as accessible for ultra-Orthodox prayer exclusively. The Jerusalem Police recommended this week that the Ministry of Justice press charges against Anat Hoffman for the felony of "gravely obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duties", in regards to her July arrest while holding a Torah at the Western Wall. The sentence for such a conviction is up to 3 years in prison. Members and supporters of Women of the Wall in Israel and abroad stand behind Hoffman, and have been busy sending hundreds of letters and pictures of women holding the Torah to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Head of the Opposition Tzipi Livni, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky, and Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi in charge of the holy places. In these letters, women from all over the world ask Israeli leaders, "How is it that as Jewish women, we are free in Berlin, in Rome, and in Chicago, while in Jerusalem it is illegal and profane for us to read from the Torah?" Supporters are encouraged to continue to send letters and pictures from the website, http://womenofthewall.org.il/solidarity/take-a-stand, conveying a clear message to Israel's leaders that Women of the Wall will not be intimidated or silenced.
In response to Women of the Wall's twenty year battle to read Torah on the women's side of the Western Wall, Rabbi Rabinowitz issued a new regulation, giving him sole and complete control over who is permitted to enter the Western Wall Plaza with a Torah. This new dictatorial procedure extends the blockade against entering to the holy site with a Torah to not only women, but also men who might be determined unfit to carry a Torah by the extremist Rabinowitz. Adv. Nira Azriel is preparing a statement on behalf of Women of the Wall to the authorities regarding the unreasonable strictness of the new regulations, which promise to worsen conditions for women even further.
Women of the Wall is a group of Jewish women from around the world who strive to achieve the right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem, Israel. The Western Wall is Judaism's most sacred holy site and the principal symbol of Jewish people-hood and sovereignty and Women of the Wall works to make it a holy site where women can pray freely.
For more information, contact:
Shira Pruce - media@womenofthewall.org.il
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Rabbi Menachem Creditor
