By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel – “Tradition, tradition! Tradition!” are the main words repeated in the classic Fiddler on the Roof song. While it is true that many cling to tradition, there are plenty of modern women who envision something more for themselves than keeping a proper, kosher home and raising the family so that Papa can be free to read the holy books. Such modern women include Israeli-American Rabbi Susan Silverman, her daughter Hallel Abramovitz, chairwoman of the Women of the Wall, Anat Hoffman, and United States rabbis, Debra Cantor and Robin Fryer Bodzin. These women were arrested approximately a week ago for singing and reading from the Torah while wearing traditionally male prayer shawls at a Rosh Chodesh service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Rosh Chodesh is a special service which celebrates the start of a new month of the Hebrew calendar. The Western Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Kotel, is the holiest of Jewish sites, and is believed to be the last remnant of the ancient Jewish Temple. The holy site, which is an extremely popular location for prayer, is governed by ultra-Orthodox law. There is a bifurcation of women and men, and women are not allowed to wear prayer shawls.

In 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a ban by the government which denied women the ability to wear teffilin or tallit prayer shawls, or read from the Torah at the Western Wall. Silverman, her daughter, and the others insisted that they were not actively protesting the ban, but merely trying “to perform the four Ts.”

The police stood and waited as the women danced in a circle. At the completion of the service, the women were then taken to the Old City of Jerusalem Police Department. They were released on the condition that they sign a document stipulating that they not visit the Wall for fifteen days.

Famed American comedian and sister and aunt to Rabbi Silverman and Abramowitz, Sarah Silverman took to Twitter and tweeted, “So proud of my amazing sister and niece for their ballsout civil disobedience. Ur the tits #womenofthewall.” Abramowitz tweeted back, “hey auntie, want a copy of my mugshot?”

Although the punishment for the arrest was just a two week ban; when Abramowitz realized that the ban coincided with the holiday of Purim and the Women of the Wall’s Megillah reading, she went back to the police station with her father and lawyer. Shortly after, the police acquiesced to Abramowitz’s requests, and she was cleared to attend the services at the Kotel. When you read from the Megillah during Purim, you are reading from the Book of Esther. Anat Hoffman reminds us that Esther was not a lady who was afraid to speak out.

The few that were arrested were not the only Women of the Wall who have been arrested recently. The number of arrests have risen so much so that Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed Natan Sharansky to find some type of compromise. He will apprise Shmuel Rabinowitz of his decision in the spring.

For further information, please see:

Jewish Press – Police let Sarah Silverman’s Niece Visit Western Wall on Purim – 20 February 2013

Guardian – Sarah Silverman Tweet Puts Women’s Western Wall Protest in Global Spotlight – 16 February 2013

Daily Beast – Women of the Wall, Sarah Silverman-Style – 13 February 2013

Virtual Jerusalem – Women of the Wall, Silverman’s Sister Arrested at Kotel – 11 February 2013