The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem c. 1900 (Photo of the Day)

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/wailing-jerusalem-photo.html

The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem c. 1900 (Photo of the Day)
By Juan Cole | Jan. 11, 2014



The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem, c. 1900

(From Gertrude Bell, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, 1908)

[alfredo]

1. I see both men and women. Is that still the case?

[Curmudgeoness]

2. You got me wondering as well.

I usually only see men when I see pictures, but apparently, women also go.

The Wailing Wall can be visited at any time of the day. Visitors typically are thoroughly searched for security purposes. Women of any religion, out of respect for Judaic law, should wear modest clothing. There are separate entrances for men and women, although they can regroup at the Wall.

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-wailing-wall.htm

There are a few pictures where I see women as well as men at that link.

[alfredo]

3. I think that women might still be barred from praying there. The ultra orthodox and orthodox

factions don't want women there. I will have to do some research.

I just found that they can pray there, but in their own corner of the site.

From a different angle you can see the women's section is much smaller than the men's.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. Holy crap.

I dug deeper, and I am amazed and disgusted.

Sunday's service celebrating the first day of the Jewish month of Tamuz marked an historic moment in modern Jewish history. Since Israel reclaimed the Western Wall in 1967, one of the most sacred sites in Judaism has been run in strict accordance to ultra-Orthodox protocol. Women and men have been segregated. Only men have been allowed to sing from the Torah, don white prayer shawls and apply the black leather t'filin straps.

Sunday marked a victory for Women of the Wall, a feminist group which has been campaigning for the right to pray on equal terms to men at the site since 1988. The activists argue that Jewish law does not prohibit women from praying as men do. International support for their cause rocketed earlier this year, when 10 members – including the sister of the US comedian Sarah Silverman – were arrested for illegally wearing prayer shawls. In April, Israel's supreme court finally conceded their case and ruled that the Women of the Wall should be allowed to pray freely at the site. The decision has outraged Israel's largely conservative religious community.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/victory-israel-women-western-wall-pray

If anyone would like to ask me why I lost my religion, it all started with the treatment of women in the Bible and within many religions. This is one example of it.

[alfredo]

5. Organized religion tends to turn into a boy's club. Islam started out with women and all classes

equal, but the misogynist soon reinterpreted the recitation to put men in a superior position.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. Yep, and I don't want to join a boy's club.

All they will let me do is the cooking and cleaning.

Thanks to your question, I learned something new today. Somehow, I did not hear anything about the fights of these women in Israel for rights to pray like the men do.

[alfredo]

7. If women can fight and die in IDF, they should be allowed pray as and where they please.