Women for the Wall is a grassroots organization in Israel that is concerned with preserving Jewish tradition at the Western Wall. Its founder, Ronit Peskin, will be in town Monday, Jan. 13, and will present her views on this topic at 7:30 p.m. in the Social Hall at the Jewish Community Campus. Her visit is sponsored by BIAV, the Jewish Community Center and Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.
Women for the Wall (W4W) has a similar name but should not be confused with Women of the Wall. The two organizations differ in what they feel is appropriate when it comes to women praying at the Wall.
“The Kotel is a holy place for all Jews, the one place on earth where Jews of all persuasions pray peacefully, side-by-side. This is only possible if we honor the traditions that reach back for thousands of years and have held us together as a Jewish nation,” Peskin explained in an email.
On the other hand, Women of the Wall want to be allowed to wear tallit, read Torah and say Kaddish at the Women’s Section of the Wall, which is currently against Israeli law. Women of the Wall activist Anat Hoffman was here in May, supporting these and other pluralist views, as The New Reform Temple’s scholar in residence. Hoffman also spoke at an event sponsored by the JCC, Federation and other Jewish synagogues and organizations.
Rabbi Rockoff hopes many people will come hear what W4W’s Peskin has to say, because he believes it is valuable for us as a Jewish community outside of Israel to hear different perspectives from inside Israel.
“It is encouraging to hear that there are voices who wish to return the Kotel to what it always has been — a source of unity for Jews from around the world. I have only heard of Women for the Wall recently, but they have already appeared on an international stage at the Federation GA on a panel discussion. I am confident they will provide a balanced and respectful presentation and I encourage Jews of any political or religious orientation to attend this event,” Rabbi Rockoff said.
Peskin founded W4W in April because she feels the Western Wall should be a symbol of unity to all Jews.
“Unfortunately, lately it has become a focus of contention. I hope to share a more balanced perspective on this crucial issue,” she wrote in an email from her home in Kochav Yaakov, which is located about 15 minutes outside Jerusalem.
“Our focus on the trip to K.C. is to share with the community a broader perspective on the issues facing Israel, the Kotel and traditional Judaism,” Peskin continued.
Peskin wrote that she and Leah Aharoni, who is considered co-founder of W4W, formed the organization “when we saw that Women of the Wall was slandering Israel and the traditional community in the international media.”
“We were hoping, at first, after the recent upsurge of media attention and their time in the spotlight, that (Women of the Wall) would become a relative non-issue, not in the news, and just do their tefillah with little fanfare,” she wrote.
“But the flames were just building higher and higher, and we saw that this wasn’t an issue that was going to die down,” Peskin continued.
Peskin was spurred to action because she believed that there would be a lot of collateral damage from Women of the Wall’s stance and that people’s relationships to Israel and Judaism were being damaged, “based on the lies they were hearing from Women of the Wall.”
The final impetus for forming W4W, Peskin said, was when a compromise, proposed by the Jewish Agency’s Natan Sharansky, could not be reached with Women of the Wall to expand Robinson’s Arch into a larger area for egalitarian prayer.
“We were galvanized into action because we didn’t want the Kotel to become collateral damage in Anat Hoffman’s and IRAC’s (Israel Religious Action Center) political fight to change Israel,” Peskin said.
Peskin explained that W4W respects diversity, preaches love and respect for everyone, “despite our differences in opinion,” while at the same time maintains that tradition needs to be respected, especially at Judaism’s most holy site.
“We believe compromises show sincerity and a desire for peace and brotherhood. We look forward to the time when Women of the Wall starts respecting the rights of traditional Jews, and include traditional Jewish values into their fight for ‘pluralism,’ and don’t try to quash the rights of traditional Jews in their so called fight for pluralism,” she wrote.
According to Peskin, W4W is run by women from across the religious spectrum, and has supporters ranging from Haredi (most theologically conservative stream of Orthodox Judaism) and Chassidic to Modern Orthodox to non-observant and even anti-religious and non-Jews.
“People like to label us a Haredi organization, when the fact of the matter is that of the three heads of Women For the Wall, I’m the only one who is even somewhat Haredi, and I don’t fit the standard Haredi model, and the other two heads (Jenni Menashe and Leah Aharoni) are Dati Leumi/Religious Zionist and completely non-Haredi,” Peskin said.
Peskin’s first priority is her husband and three children, ages 6, 4 and 2. When she’s not working on W4W activities, she writes her “very popular, internationally read blog, PennilessParenting.com, about money saving, frugal living, and healthy eating. Occasionally I lead wild edible walks.”
This is the first time Peskin has been to the United States to promote W4W’s views. She said Aharoni will travel to this country to speak about the issues next month.
“We hope to both make more trips in the future,” Peskin said.
