Comments on: Honorary Harpies: Women of the Wall

By: God Is Not A Segregationist - The Pursuit of Harpyness

God Is Not A Segregationist - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:02:05 +0000

[...] in Islam. (Unlike Jewish women, who are segregated at our holy sites in Jerusalem, and have been threatened and attacked during attempts to [...]

By: Tweets that mention Honorary Harpies: Women of the Wall - The Pursuit of Harpyness -- Topsy.com

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:38:23 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Vicki Boykis and GenderAcrossBorders, Urocyon. Urocyon said: Jerusalem: Women of the Wall http://bit.ly/deZeSy "refusing to be cowed by a campaign of harassment and intimidation" [...]

By: Vertigo29

Vertigo29 — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:36:59 +0000

I am not Jewish but ever time I see something about WoW I read about it because I think they are simply awesome.

By: baraqiel

baraqiel — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:53:11 +0000

@MM – Indeed. I have a friend who lives in the US but is Israeli-born and she goes back to visit her family every year in the summer. She’s told me numerous stories of, for example, walking around in shorts and having a man literally run away screaming from her.

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:45:24 +0000

Now wait a minute, Chevalier. Palin is no friend of feminists or even of the female gender in general. I agree that no woman deserves attacks based on her sex, but political allegiance does absolutely determine how and how much I support anyone. Palin, from the first moment, played on her gender and her looks, so having those used against her is unsurprising. There are certainly substantive reasons to attack her politically, but if pose like a cover girl, you’re going to get talked about like one.

Ms Pinot, this is in no way normative Judaism. American Jews support and contribute to practices in Israel and in the US that they would never obey themselves-it’s the worst kind of hypocrisy. Btw, the haredi don’t just do this stuff to WoW. They will attack anyone they see as violating the Sabbath by driving, shopping, being improperly dressed,etc. And that means spitting, throwing chairs, throwing rocks, throwing bags of excrement, creating barricades and other acts that are as offensive as they can get. Why this stuff isn’t criminal is beyond me. And yes, someone is going to get hurt.

This is not why Israel was created.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:39:20 +0000

If you’re so inclined, here are a couple of organizations that support progressive, egalitarian Judaism in Israel:

http://www.irac.org/
Anat Hoffman’s organization, The Israel Religious Action Center, devoted to egalitarian and pluralistic Judaism in Israel.

http://www.arza.org/aboutus/
Association of Reform Zionists in America, provides support and advocacy for Reform and progressive Judaism in Israel.

http://yozma.org.il/eng/1about.htm
Kehillat YOZMA, a vibrant, activist Reform congregation in Modi’in, founded by Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon, Israel’s first female rabbi.

By: Ms Pinot

Ms Pinot — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:19:41 +0000

I’ve read and heard about this from my customers at work before, but to read Becky’s editorial on it was so much more informative and gut-wrenching. Women who have committed no crime, are getting arrested and interrogated, possibly charged with a felony….for PRAYING?? That is just so diametrically different than what I think Judaism is about that I could scream. Now I want to convert, move to Israel and help these brave women out. The hard-core orthodox rabbi’s in my area have a choke-hold on the local conservative jewish community, but that makes his attempts to make every new restaurant or fast food joint hire a religious observer and certify themselves kosher seem like a small child throwing a tantrum in the candy isle. If someone threw a CHAIR at someone for praying, how does the Israeli gov’t not see that this will escalate until one of these women are seriously harmed? And for a government official to encourage assault on women? WTF?

By: baraqiel

baraqiel — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:07:23 +0000

Honestly, what makes me even more upset is the support they get from more moderate Jews. My grandparents (on my dad’s side, not MM’s parents) are Conservative Jews by nature but attend a modern Orthodox shul for various reasons and I had a long argument with them a couple months ago about the Orthodoxy and how misogynistic it is and that by attending an Orthodox shul they’re enabling it and they not only didn’t believe me, their response was that: a) Orthodox women have no problem with it (this is false) so it isn’t a problem and b) even if Orthodox women did have a problem with it, it will never change. This even though there are several Orthodox congregations in Israel that are starting to ordain female rabbis! It’s like moderate Jews feel guilty somehow for not being more “frum” so they support the Orthodox no matter what they do. The number of times my Hebrew school acted like a shill for Orthodox groups in Israel was astounding to me. Ugh.

By: Chevalier

Chevalier — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:57:37 +0000

Spitting???!!! Seriously, what are they – twelve?
And this just sounds so familiar:
“We are a turtle with wings,” Hoffman says. “We have no parents. If we were secular feminists, the entire liberal wing would embrace us. If we were God-fearing Orthodox, the entire Haredi wing would adopt us,…

This is exactly what happens when a right-wing woman here in the US is the target of misogynistic attacks too (e.g. Sarah Palin). Political alleigance should not be the basis for how women support each other.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:04:40 +0000

@bella: I feel exactly the same way. It’s discouraging to realize that the thoughtful, egalitarian religion I practice is made so completely unrecognizable by these fanatics.

The Haredi are why I dislike Jerusalem. Muslim fanatics in East Jerusalem are somehow less offensive to me than the Jewish fanatics in West Jerusalem. It’s so much worse when the religion being perverted is MY religion.