Anat Hoffman questioned
Anat Hoffman is a well-known activist with the Israel branch of the Reform movement's Religious Action Center. When I called her Wednesday, I learned that she had recently been subjected to questioning by the Jerusalem police over her role in a women's prayer service at the Western Wall that resulted in the arrest of one participant for wearing a prayer shawl.
Below is video of the interview I shot with Hoffman in Jerusalem. The rabbinical authority responsible for the wall was unavailable for an interview Wednesday, and several individuals approached at the site declined to be interviewed on camera. Fortunately I found one willing interviewee to provide at least some perspective on why this is such a sensitive issue for the religious.
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Part of this question was settled when the secular government ceded authority of the religious sections of life to the ultra-orthodox representatives. Another part of the question is still ongoing: female rabbis, the role of females in Judaism. Pre-Israel the men ran the religion and the women ran the family. Then the modern American influence was felt thru the Reform movement. No one doubts that the ultra-orthodox will care for The Wall. It is, after all, the closest we can physically get to the Temple without removing non-Jewish influences on top of the Temple Mount. The ultra-orthodox have spent their lives keeping Torah alive for the rest of us, I prefer not to trust anyone else to care for the Western Wall at this time.
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Didi Remez
01/07/10 10:18 AM
Does this have anything to do with Michael Oren’s “inquiry” on the issue? http://bit.ly/5DRqM0