I was hired to photograph a bar mitzvah at the Kotel. It was disrupted by Haredi protestors
Bar mitzvah attendees were violently harassed by dozens of Haredim, despite holding the ceremony in the egalitarian section
Women of the Wall
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Opinion I went to Israel for my bat mitzvah at the Kotel but an angry ultra-Orthodox mob tried to stop it
I came as a girl wanting to read Torah, and left as a woman ready to fight for everyone’s right to pray as they choose
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Fast Forward Orthodox protesters again disrupt prayer at Western Wall
Lucia da Silva's parents had prepared her for confrontations at her bat mitzvah ceremony
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News The harassers are loud. The Women of the Wall choir aims to be louder.
A battle of acoustics is playing out at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the holiest place in the world for Jews. Traditionalists believe the Torah forbids women from singing in public — even at the Wall’s women’s section — and those who dare sing are often harassed. “People come with hundreds of whistles to drown out our…
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Fast Forward Key Israeli Government Minister Drops Support For Egalitarian Prayer At Kotel
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli government minister whose approval is needed to advance the plan for the Western Wall’s egalitarian section has dropped her support for the proposal. Miri Regev, the culture and sport minister, announced in a Facebook post late Wednesday that she would not approve the plan in her position as chairwoman of the…
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Community Women Of The Wall Is Fighting For Ultra-Orthodox Women, Too
It is Rosh Chodesh Iyar, and over one hundred women have come prepared with Israeli flags and strong singing voices. After a last-minute deliberation, we made the decision to enter the dreaded metal “cage” (the barriers set up for Women of the Wall for the Western Wall Heritage Foundation and police, “quarantining” us on the…
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The Schmooze 4 Things Yair Netanyahu Could Have Spent $116 On That Aren’t A Sex Worker
Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s son Yair (can we call him Baby Bibi?) is embroiled in scandal yet again. A 2015 recording of him that surfaced today on Israeli news. He is recorded on tape outside a strip club telling a friend that his father’s help pushing a $20 billion oil deal that benefited the…
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The Schmooze WATCH: Sarah Silverman’s Rabbi Sister Drops F-Bombs To Explain Judaism
“My third favorite sister, you guys!” Sarah Silverman exclaimed, welcoming one of her three sisters, the Jerusalem-based Reform rabbi Susan Silverman, to the talk show “I Love You, America.” In a brief, but stunningly specific, discussion on Sarah Silverman’s new Hulu show that aired around Thanksgiving, the sisters spent eight minutes lying on a bed,…
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