Israeli riot police scuffle with haredi Orthodox Jews at the Western Wall plaza in a bid to keep them away from Women of the Wall's monthly prayer service at the holy site in Jerusalem, May 10, 2013. (Flash90)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Because haredi Orthodox women had packed the women\u2019s section of the plaza earlier in the morning, Women of the Wall were forced to pray in the back section of the plaza, further away from the Wall itself.<\/p>\n
The Women of the Wall service was the first since a ruling last month by a Jerusalem District Court judge that the group did not violate the law and deserved police protection rather than arrests.<\/p>\n
Police were on hand Friday morning to protect the women, a reversall of scenes from months past, when women wearing prayer shawls to the monthly service would be arrested for breaking a law that outlawed any deviation from \u201clocal custom\u201d at the wall. Police arrested three Haredi protesters and a police spokesman said more arrests may be in the offing as police review video.<\/p>\n
One day before the service, Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteynman, a haredi leader, called on thousands of students to protest Women of the Wall.<\/p>\n
A constant din of screaming came from the crowd as the service began, and shrieks erupted as a woman wearing a prayer shawl tried to push through the mob to reach the service. Police, sometimes holding hands, sometimes linking arms, held back the crowd as two officers, with difficulty, escorted the woman through.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sad that they\u2019re using the Kotel to advance their interests,\u201d said an Orthodox graphic designer from Jerusalem, 29, who declined to give her name. \u201cThey want to change all of Israel. It\u2019s an insult to this place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women of the Wall\u2019s service has rarely, if ever, seen this many people come to protest. Many of the haredim said that they were there to pray, as haredim do daily at the Wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to pray and to protest gentiles who masquerade as Jews,\u201d said Pini, 17, from Jerusalem, who would not give his last name. \u201cI\u2019ve taken hits here and I\u2019ll take more hits. They\u2019re making the Torah crooked. They want us to be like them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency who has been endeavoring to broker a modus vivendi at the Wall by expanding the prayer area, said the events of Friday morning underscored the need for such a solution.<\/p>\n
In a statement he described an “urgent need” for a solution that would “allow any Jew, group of Jews or Jewish community to pray at the Western Wall according to their own custom.<\/p>\n
Sharansky praised the police for protecting those engaged in prayer from “rioters.”<\/p>\n
As the service went on, the crowd of haredi Orthodox men tried to push through the police barricade several times \u2013 and almost succeeded before the officers pushed them back, sometimes manhandling a student or two along the way. As attempt after attempt to breach the police line failed, the men turned to throwing cups of water and coffee at police, journalists and \u2013 when they could \u2013 the women praying. One protester threw a chair.<\/p>\n
At times, the haredi Orthodox crowd would itself break out into song, singing about the failure of wicked plans and the dominion of God.<\/p>\n
Throughout it all, Women of the Wall prayed a full service, trying to sing over the screams that would rise every time a song began. For the first time in at least months, men and women mixed at the service, with no divider to separate them.<\/p>\n
Young Israeli Orthodox women turn out by the hundreds to protest Women of the Wall's monthly prayer service at the Western Wall, May 10, 2013. (Ben Sales)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThis is an embarrassment and a shame how some people are acting to people who just want to pray,\u201d said Bracha, 66, who participated in Women of the Wall\u2019s service and also would not give her last name. \u201cThere\u2019s space for everybody. People need to relate with understanding to those who don\u2019t do the same thing as them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some supporters of Women of the Wall, Friday\u2019s conflict was about more than the right to pray freely at Judaism\u2019s holiest site.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a struggle for democracy in Israel,\u201d said Lucas Lejderman, 30, a counselor in the Conservative Jewish youth movement here.<\/p>\n
Whether protesters will turn out in equal numbers when Women of the Wall meet for next month’s Rosh Chodesh service is unclear. As the crowd dispersed, the women sang Hatikvah, Israel\u2019s national anthem. As if on cue, the handful of protesters who remained booed at the top of their lungs.<\/p>\n
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