Women of the Wall: A Normative Analysis of the Place of Religion in the Public Sphere

Jobani, Yuval; Perez, Nahshon

doi:10.1093/ojlr/rwu021

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The organization was established in 1988 when a group of women tried to hold a Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) prayer in the women’s section of the Western Wall, wrapped in a prayer shawl, putting on tefillin, dancing, carrying an Old Testament scroll (Torah) and reading it. These feminists’ rituals do not follow the patriarchal religious customs of the Orthodox and Ultraorthodox Jewish streams and upset some members of the Orthodox Jewish community, although they are regarded as legitimate by liberal and feminist movements who advocate for gender equality (Jobani and Perez, 2014; Reiter, 2017). Rosh Chodesh ceremonies have been being held in the women’s section of the Western Wall by the Women of the Wall since the establishment of their movement in 1988.…”

Section: Women Of the Wallmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The WOW phenomenon raised the debate about the use of a divider ( mechitsa ) for women’s prayer at the Wall prior to 1948 (Shakdiel, 2002; Charmé, 2005; Shiloh, 2010). Shakdiel (2002), who is also a women’s rights activist but from a different school of thought, rightly portrayed the WOW as an undermining factor in Judaism and in “Israeli Ethnocracy.” Jobani and Perez (2014, 2017) studies pertain to the WOW’s impact on Israeli public discourse concerning the role of religion in Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. They suggest privatizing the administration of holy places for the different stakeholders and letting the State withdraw from religion.…”

Section: Women Of the Wallmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fighting for Equal Spiritual Voice: The Case of the “Women of the Wall”

Daphna–Tekoah

Sharaby

2019

Front. Psychol.

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Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about women’s rights and religious feminism. The context for analysis of women’s experiences is the “Women of the Wall” who have been struggling for the past 30 years for their right to practice their spiritual rituals (praying at the Western Wall) in a hegemonic and masculine arena. We suggest that the “Women of the Wall” and their battle for spiritual equality threaten the hegemonic masculinity. Moreover, this feminist battle expands the feminist revolution and the fights for women’s equality to the religious arena which is dominated by hegemonic masculinity. The implementation of the Listening Guide, a feminist methodology, assists us in uncovering various voices, representing different aspects of the experiences of the “Women of the Wall” in a conflict zone. These narratives reveal juxtapositions of feelings of competence, determination and vulnerability and shed light on the women’s struggle for gender equality in a hegemonic masculine domain.

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Section: Women Of the Wallmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Women Of the Wallmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting for Equal Spiritual Voice: The Case of the “Women of the Wall”

Daphna–Tekoah

Sharaby

2019

Front. Psychol.

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“…Taylor argues that a person's identity crucially depends on his dialogical relations with his community and society ( [106], pp. [33][34]. 18 This dimension should be recognized in the public sphere.…”

Section: The Right To Culture-a Right To a Participatory Goodmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That is, as a way of life that many people produce 1 For cases that concern Muslim women who challenge their inheritance share see [18]. 2 For academic literature that explicitly discusses the right to culture with regard to the status of women within minority groups in Israel see for example [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. 3 The right to culture is generally rare in Israeli judicially decision.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Absence of the Right to Culture of Minorities within Minorities in Israel: A Tale of a Cultural Dissent Case

Pinto

2015

Laws

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The Israeli Plonit case concerns a Muslim woman who wished to be represented by a female arbitrator in a Shari'a Court. The Shari'a Court of Appeals denied her request and decided that Shari'a Law permits only men to serve as arbitrators. Plonit petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court, which accepted her petition and decided that the Shari'a Court of Appeals' decision infringed her right to equality. While I support the outcome of the Supreme Court's decision, my paper sheds a light on a crucial matter that is absent in the decision; namely, the right to culture of Muslim women, who are a vulnerable members of a minority group in Israel, and therefore constitute a "minority within minority". Analysing the case in terms of Plonit's right to culture, in addition to her right to equality, has two advantages. First, it stresses the main issues at the heart of the legal debate, which are the minority culture's norms and practices, and the right of the minority within the minority to influence and shape them as much as the majority within the minority. Second, when the minority within the minority's claim is put in terms of the right to culture, and not only in terms of the right to equality, they are not necessarily perceived by other minority members as claims that try to enforce external norms on the minority culture.

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“…is in itself the symbol and therefore potential ground for confrontation over the limits of its identity. For instance, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, perceived as a unique and sacred place, is the focus of an extensive identity struggle for its definition(Jobani and Perez 2014).25 This conclusion corresponds with that ofPerez (2019), who believes that in order to protect soldiers' religious freedom within the military framework and to allow them to pray and practice their religion, the army must provide them with due space and time as well as accessibility to religious personnel and means such as prayer books.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Identity Encounters in Public Spaces—Military Service as a Legally Binding Public Space. The Case of Women’s Singing in the Israel Defense Forces

Umiel-Feldman

2020

Religions

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The term ‘Public Sphere’ is used to distinguish it from the private. Here, we will use the term ‘Public Spaces’ to distinguish between various types of public spheres, differing from one another not only in their controlling identity, but also in the level of obligation to be in them and the extent in which they demand obedience from their participants. The new typology proposed in this paper conceptualizes the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] as a legally binding Public Space, using the case study of the Jewish religious law prohibiting Orthodox men to listen to a woman’s singing voice. This prohibition has sparked a strong public controversy and ongoing clashes between the army and religion. The case study illustrates a wide range of confrontations over the identity of the IDF’s space. While examining similar cases in other armies around the world, the paper presents a model explaining the terms and conditions for disputes on the nature of Public Spaces around the world, and when to expect confrontations between identities in different Public Spaces. Finally, the paper attempts to predict the extent and scope of such confrontations, on four dimensions: (a) The level of obligation to be in the Public Space; (b) the level of greediness of the Public Space; (c) the level of heterogeneity of identities within the Public Space; and (d) the level of personal identity greediness of persons and groups whose identity differs from the hegemonic identity in the public space.

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Women of the Wall: A Normative Analysis of the Place of Religion in the Public Sphere

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Fighting for Equal Spiritual Voice: The Case of the “Women of the Wall”

Fighting for Equal Spiritual Voice: The Case of the “Women of the Wall”

The Absence of the Right to Culture of Minorities within Minorities in Israel: A Tale of a Cultural Dissent Case

Identity Encounters in Public Spaces—Military Service as a Legally Binding Public Space. The Case of Women’s Singing in the Israel Defense Forces

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