The Women of the Wall (WoW) will be celebrating 25 years of women praying aloud together at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem on Rosh Chodesh Kislev (which is Monday, November 4), and you are invited to join them.
Chaia Beckerman, a member of the WoW International Advisory Board and its speaker’s bureau, who was born in Minneapolis and attended the University of Minnesota, is organizing a group trip through Keshet of Israel, an experienced educational tour provider. If you’re thinking there’s no way you’re going to get on a plane, go to a service at the Kotel, and then fly straight home again, don’t worry. This is a nine-day trip with lots packed into it.
In addition to the Rosh Chodesh service with Women of the Wall at the Kotel, this trip includes many Israeli highlights, including a visit to Independence Hall where Israel declared itself a state after the UN vote in 1948, a day in the mystical city of Tzfat, a trip to Masada, a visit to the City of David and the Western Wall tunnels, Shabbat in Jerusalem, and a dip in the Dead Sea.
It also includes activities that are geared specifically to the purpose of this trip, including seminars and workshops with Women of the Wall and a visit to the Hannah Senesch Museum at Kibbutz Sdot Yam, where young women were trained in the early days of Zionism.
Chaia says it’s important to her that Jews from the diaspora come to this event. “I want to put WoW in context. We have more supporters than ever before.” But, she agrees, there is a lot of misinformation about WoW in the international media. She wants to be able to set the record straight, and to show supporters from the diaspora how WoW fits into the realities of modern-day Israel.
As an American who made aliyah to Israel and lived there for 18 years before returning to the United States, Chaia will be able to provide plenty of context regarding the origins of WoW, and where they are today. She was working at the Truman Institute at Hebrew University when the first women got together and decided to pray as a group at the Kotel. Although Chaia did not attend that first prayer service, she was a regular participant from the beginning of WoW, and became even more active with them after the first 4 to 5 years. She has remained active in supporting WoW even after her return to the States.
I asked Chaia what she would say to any North American people who want to support WoW, but who have read about the Charedi protests at recent services, and who might be concerned about their safety at the Kotel during the WoW prayer service there.
“The chances of anyone from abroad being hurt is minimal,” she said. “The regular members of WoW are the ones who are the most visible during the service. The Charedim know who’s who. There are no guarantees, but I’m confident there will be adequate security. It will be the 25th anniversary, and there will be precautions taken.” In addition, it’s worth noting that nobody has been seriously injured at a WoW service in the more than 24 years they have been holding these services.
“Israel is our homeland,” says Chaia, “and the Kotel needs to be home for all of us. Every woman needs to feel safe and secure. Every woman needs to feel she has a place at the Kotel.”
For more information about the Women of the Wall’s 25th anniversary trip to Israel, including prices and the full itinerary, visit the Keshet website.
(Photo: Michal Patelle)
Graphic from Women of the Wall website
