For decades, Anat Hoffman claimed that WoW simply wanted to pray in its own fashion, despite dozens of editorials and statements from WoW leaders about forcing traditional women to “change their world view,” in the words of its late founder, Rivka Haut. The abandonment of common standards leads not to a single fissure, but fragmentation.

Today, Women For the Wall unveiled a video collection of unscripted interviews with Jerusalem residents. Though these were random interviews on the steps down to the Wall, all were unanimous in their condemnation of what they characterized as inappropriate and disruptive conduct by the Women of the Wall.

Supporters of the WoW frequently argue that female Kotel worshipers should be allowed to pray as they do at home, including reading Torah and singing loudly – curiously, though, non-Orthodox Jews have never complained about another major way they are unable to worship at the Kotel as they do at home: with musical instruments on Shabbat.

Women of the Wall are free to make the case that their feminist vision should trump Jewish tradition. But seeking to flaunt their conviction in the faces of others for whom it is anathema is crass.

“I couldn’t hear anything, not because of the mechitzah, but because of Women of the Wall trying to overpower our minyan while standing right on top of us.”