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A women’s prayer service at the Western Wall was disturbed by protesting haredi Orthodox men and women on Feb. 29.

The Original Women of the Wall group held morning services using a small Torah scroll that members smuggled in for the service. The women were wearing prayer shawls and tefillin.

According to a statement issued by the group, a breakaway from the Women of the Wall, the prayers were “brutally disturbed” by several haredi Orthodox men and women.

“Over twenty women participated in this morning’s prayer at the Kotel until a number of haredi women began screaming and attempting to push into the group, assaulting members of the group by violent shoving and grabbing arms. Shouting and cursing, the attackers did not relent their assault until police arrived,” according to the statement.

The police removed the protesters and remained in the area until the prayer service ended.

The Original Women of the Wall reject the recent compromise for an egalitarian prayer plaza next to the existing men’s and women’s sections, and have said they will not leave the women’s section of the Western Wall once the new egalitarian section is ready. Four days earlier, a large group of Reform rabbis and supporters held services at the site of the new section.

The Original WOW has begun to hold services at the Wall on days other than Rosh Chodesh, which marks each new Hebrew month, as the Women of the Wall has done for more than 25 years.

A 2013 Supreme Court ruling acknowledged the women’s right to pray at the Western Wall according to their beliefs, claiming it does not violate what has come to be known as “local custom.”

Regulations at the site have allowed women to wear prayer shawls and kippahs, but prevented them from using a Torah scroll in their section. — jta