(JTA) — Thirteen years ago, on the morning of Rosh Chodesh Adar, I was detained at the Kotel.
I had joined a group choosing to pray with the Women of the Wall in the women’s section. A minyan of us, 10 women, were detained by police.
My “crime” on that February day in 2013 was violating the regulations of holy places and behaving in a way that may have endangered public safety. My punishment was a 30-day ban on visiting the entire Western Wall plaza.
At the time, my arrest was befuddling. All I did was daven, or pray, just as I do every day, as a rabbi serving the largest Conservative synagogue in Canada.
In the years since, I’ve seen police interfere with women’s prayer at the Kotel on a near-monthly basis. And now, something is unfolding that is beyond befuddling — it is outrageous.
The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee has been moving forward a piece of legislation that would criminalize any egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall — punishable by up to seven years in prison — including at the site that has been dedicated to egalitarian services for the past decade. Even as the governing coalition has teetered, the committee has held one hearing recently and is planning another. While it appears unlikely that the bill could become law before elections happen this fall, and the process will stop if the governing coalition collapses, lawmakers appear to be doing all they can to make egalitarian worship illegal at Judaism’s holiest site.
The bill is an insult to millions of Conservative, Reform and progressive Jews who are deep supporters of Israel and have been advocating tirelessly for the Jewish state before and after Oct. 7, 2023, and during the war with Iran.
Currently, the Kotel has a men’s section and women’s section, which is overseen by the haredi Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, and a nearby egalitarian section, which has been overseen by the non-Orthodox branches since 2016. The legislation would transfer authority of the entire Kotel to the Chief Rabbinate and criminalize religious services anywhere at the site that do not conform to their standards.
Diaspora Jews who have stood with Israel must stand against this outrage.
This law would make me unwelcome as a practicing Jew who starts every morning with a tallit and tefillin. It would also make me unwelcome as a deep supporter of the Jewish state. I have invested in a home in northern Israel. I wear a heart on the chain around my neck with the words “ein li eretz acheret,” I have no other land. And I have made my love and support especially clear every day since Oct. 7.
When I think back to the day I was arrested, it is with sadness. I no longer feel comfortable in the women’s section of the Kotel. As a Jewish leader, it is hard for me to admit that publicly.
Now, whenever I am in Israel, usually a few times a year, I instead make my way to the egalitarian section to daven shacharit, the morning prayers, with a group or squeeze in solo mincha prayers in the afternoon.
Over the years, I have come to appreciate that the egalitarian section is a continuation of the same wall and has the same level of holiness. Back in February, right before the current war began, my husband, daughter and I all stood there together, took photos and acknowledged how grateful we felt that we could be together without a mechitzah segregating us.
We never dreamed it could be our last time praying together there.
There are many ways to be Jewish. The government should let the Orthodox control the gender-segregated sections. Leave the egalitarian section for egalitarian Jews. Those who agree should weigh in by joining thousands of others who have signed a petition of protest to the Israeli government.
After my sentence ended 13 years ago, I took to Facebook and posted: ”It is very liberating to wake up in the morning and know my sentence is over…looking for someone to lend me a plane for a quick back and forth flight today.”
With the Knesset’s term running out, this legislation may not pass the required three readings to become law. But it could certainly advance just one more step and pass a first reading, which would then allow the next Knesset to quickly pass it in its second and third readings.
If that happens, even a plane ride to Israel could never make me feel welcome there again.