WoW Supporter: Its a Political Battle. W4W: Politics Don’t Belong At The Kotel

http://www.haaretz.com/an-open-letter-to-leah-aharoni-on-behalf-of-religious-freedom-in-israel.premium-1.518665

To those that claim that the Women of the Wall are just about “being able to pray how they want, with no further agenda,” the above article in HaAretz should prove instructive. In her open letter in response to Leah Aharoni, co-founder of Women For the Wall, the writer, Reform Rabbi Elianna Yolkut, states quite clearly that the agenda is not just about prayer, at all.

“The Women of the Wall and their supporters are trying to liberate Judaism from the ties of an Orthodox hegemony. We are trying to build an Israel that allows all of us – yes, including you – to practice Judaism with equal treatment under the law, even though our way of doing so looks very different.”

Non Orthodox Jews- I understand your pain that the laws in Israel don’t treat Orthodox Judaism and Reform and Conservative Judaism the same. Your struggle is a valid one, but its a political one, not a religious one, because this is about Israeli laws. So please, take your fight to the political arena, to the Knesset and the supreme court, and leave the holy sites out of it.

The Kotel simply isn’t the proper venue for a battle of rights. Fighting for this agenda at the Kotel is akin to having a Gay Pride Parade in the Vatican. There is a time and place for everything, and the Kotel simply isn’t the right place to fight your political battles.