Three women were stopped for questioning after attempting to pray at the Western Wall wearing Jewish prayer shawls on Tuesday, May 22. One of the three was Sarit Horwitz, 26, a graduate of Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy and a second-year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Conservative Judaism in New York. She has been in Israel for a year, studying at the Shechter Institute, a pluralistic Jewish studies seminary, as part of her rabbinical studies course.
The women, part of a group of about 40 from the Women of the Wall group, were praying at the wall as part of their monthly Rosh Chodesh, or new month, prayer service, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Horwitz and the other two women are featured in a YouTube video posted on the Women of the Wall Facebook page. The Jerusalem Post article quoting Horwitz is also posted on the Facebook page. Women of the Wall’s central mission is to achieve the social and legal recognition of “our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall.”
Horwitz told the Jerusalem Post that a policewoman approached her during the group’s prayer service and told her to adjust the tallit she was wearing because she was wearing it as a man does. A male officer then adjusted the tallit for her without her permission.
As Erica Miller explained on the video, “we were instructed to wear our tallisim as a scarf and we did just that.”
Upon exiting the plaza, the three women, including Horwitz, were briefly detained by the police who took their personal identification and contact details, although they did not give a specific reason for the demand. They were told they would need to present themselves to the police for further investigation and questioning.
“It’s frightening to me that a woman wearing a tallit is a criminal threat to the State of Israel,” Horwitz told The Jerusalem Post. “I’m leaving the country in a week and a half and I hope when I come back Israel will be a more religiously tolerant and understanding place.”
On the video, Horwitz voices her support for Women of the Wall and its importance to women.
“I think it’s important that holy spaces in Israel aren’t just for a certain group of people and that we can also feel that this space (the Kotel) is ours. Without Women of the Wall there’s not the framework to do that,” she said.
Horwitz is the daughter of Tobi Cooper and Rabbi Danny Horwitz, a former rabbi at Congregation Ohev Sholom.
Some information for this report was provided by JTA News & Features.