Hundreds of Religious Girls Bused to Western Wall to Overpower Feminist Activists' Prayer
Orthodox high school girls leave school to shout down Women of the Wall during prayer services at Jerusalem's Western Wall; Police separate groups, restricting confrontations to verbal attacks.
Judy Maltz Feb 27, 2017 12:55 PM
Women of the Wall was forced to hold its monthly prayer service behind barricades on Monday morning, as busloads of Orthodox high school girls from around the country descended on the Western Wall as part of a show of force against the feminist prayer group.
According to police estimates, somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 Orthodox high school girls, many of them from schools affiliated with the national religious Bnei Akiva movement, filled up the women’s section of the Western Wall. The girls were bused in by Liba, an extreme right-wing organization behind a new campaign to force the government to repeal its plan to create a new egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall for the Reform and Conservative movements, as well as Women of the Wall.
Among the girls taken out of schools to participate in the protest were students from several West Bank settlements.
Police set up the barricade in order to prevent confrontations between the two praying groups in the women’s section. About 120 women participated in the Women of the Wall morning service marking the beginning of the Jewish month of Adar. Their service also included a Bat Mitzvah ceremony for a girl visiting from the United States.
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