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On a chilly Jerusalem evening this week, several hundred social activists – men and women, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and secular Jews - gathered at the Western Wall plaza for a unique celebration of Chanukah. The candle-lighting ceremony was organized by Yerushalmim, which seeks to strengthen social solidarity in the city, with support from NIF and many NIF grantees working to promote religious pluralism in Israel.
Yerushalmim's Rachel Azariah lights the third candle. She said the ultra-Orthodox are trying to impose gender segregation in all public places. The aim of the gathering was to protest growing gender segregation in public places including the Western Wall plaza, and to assert that the plaza belongs to all Jewish people – regardless of gender or affiliation. Many held stickers saying "The Wall Belongs to All of Us." Rachel Azariah of Yerushalmim explained that while she accepted the status-quo segregating the area immediately in front of the Wall for prayer, she could not accept the notion that the plaza above the Wall should also be segregated. She said, "The ultra-Orthodox are trying to impose gender segregation in all public places. It started on buses , now it is here at the Western Wall Plaza and soon it will be everywhere." After lighting the Chanukah candles the crowd sang traditional holiday songs including, "We have come to banish the darkness". Many of those present were US Jews in Jerusalem for Chanukah. NIF International Council Member Louis Newman from St. Paul, Minnesota who was leading a Carleton College study trip, said, "The issue of promoting religious pluralism here in Israel is very dear to us." Rabbi Amy Eilberg, a Conservative Rabbi from St. Paul observed, "We have been shunted aside and it was very important for us to come here today to say that the Wall belongs to all of us." The candle-lighting closed with the singing of Israel's national anthem Hatikvah. Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of NIF grantee Israel Religious Action Center of the Movement for Progressive Judaism in Israel (Reform) and Chair of Women of the Wall urged all women to attend prayers for Rosh Chodesh (the new month) of Tevet on Friday. "I was there last month when a woman was arrested for the 'crime' of wearing a talith. We must not let this happen again." Read more about the situation by the Western Wall here.
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