It is indeed scandalous for Shas and others to tell their women constituents to disrupt other women because they have different views. This is NOT leadership in any sense. So...I agree with Dr. Shalem accept for saying: "We are all women of the wall." This is not Denmark during WW2 and women of the wall are simply women.

This is a debate between teh various streams of religious Israelis, and the vast majority of Israelis who consider themselves religious oppose the WoW agenda.

You have a small problem with your view of the problem! And this small problem is what the Kotel is and what it represents. I do understand your politically correct views, but the thing is that the Kottel is important only to religious people and not to feminists that don't believe in God (they admitted all these in various radio interviews) and don't give any special meaning to the Wall. They do this just to promote hate, and simply because, with no other reason that thinking that they are important. It's sad to see that someone who calls himself a doctor has so limited a view, more than that, democracy if it's to respect the rights of the minority, it's mostly the government of the majority (at least that's what the books say) so if they want to come in disguise to the Kottel and that bothers the BIG majority, I am sorry, but however much it may sound politically "incorrect" they have no right at all to bother people who daily go to pray and believe in the holiness of the Wall, thing that they don't believe in.

It was a group of women that organized the prayer service. Women For the Wall was established by women to protect the sanctity of the Kotel. In a few short weeks of existence they brought out a crowd of over 10,000, in 25 years the Reform can barely rally a few hundred.

Provocateurs that incite do not have rights. I'm sure this writer is not spilling his guts for the rights of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

What worship? G-d seems to have gotten lost in this shuffle between provocateurs. He has gotten lost between Torah and Halacha in the name of politics, "religion" and personal agendas. We have not changed since Sinai. And neither has G-d.

What do these few women want ? All of a sudden they want to don Tefilin and wear Talis most Israelis understand that this just for getting attention. Why defend a few attention seekers trying to create friction amongst ourselves.

The notion that a person can be prevented from attending a particular public place solely on the basis of their sex is EGREGIOUS! That the "rationalization" for that is tradition, religion, and whatnot, makes it doubly worse. Such ideas have no place in a modern, progressive society. Barring women from the Wall is exactly the same as barring African Americans from a university. And just like the Civil Rights movement broke the back of the despicable segregationists in the South decades ago, so will the Women of the Wall (and, one hopes, the wider society) do to these Neanderthals.

...they too would be rejected by the vast majority of religious Israelis. This is not a feminist issue, get a clue!

Reform, like Christianity before it, is based on throwing away the Torah and claiming something new is here. Just as the Christians are not allowed to hold mass at the Kosel but do it in their churches, so to Reform should pray in their churches.

Only WOMEN are not free. Michael at #10 stated the situation perfectly. These courageous women are no different from the civil rights leaders of the 1960's. Separate but equal failed then and will fail now. And to Abraham at #4, it is disingenuous to redefine the holiness of the Kotel in terms of your own viewpoint and then trying to exclude these women as not fitting your definition. Prayer is not an exclusively male perogative.

Each year thousands and thousands of visitors - Jewish and non-Jewish alike - come to the Kotel and conduct themselves with proper decorum and in accordance with the local custom. Then once a month, a fringe group of a few dozen show up with the media in tow, put on a public circus, flout the majority who pray in the traditional way (or at least respect it), and then proceed to demand recognition and equal status. This is not an issue of democracy; it is one of a minority that is seeking to impose its ways on the majority.

seculars have no say in this matter? tell that to the secular paratroopers who died to secure the old city. tell that to the secular soldiers who spilled blood and sweat to capture the kotel. who has say on the kotel? every israeli. it is not a synagogue, it is a historically and culturally and spiritually significant site to all streams of judaism as well as to other religions, and all should have equal rights to pray at it.

Well then: I believe that the WOW movement consists of ignorant Assholes.... There now, are we all ignorant Assholes?

a pox on both their houses! The ultra-orthodox are wrong to have given into the provocations of this little group of publicity seeking fascist hippies. The fascist hippies (women of the wall) are wrong for: 1. provoking the ultra-orthodox 2. being inflexible and NOT working towards a REASONABLE solution 3. bringing their raw and bad attitude of "our way or no way" and showing all of us what the fascist hippie movement is all about. No I am not, nor will I ever be a Woman of the Wall. No these Women of the Wall do not represent me.

peacefully working for civil rights for all Americans irrespective of the color of their skin... please do let me tell you...no the women of the wall are nothing like the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s

The problem here is not women's rights. The real problem is reformed Judaism. In America it is responsible for assimilation, intermarriage and syncretism. In Israel it is now causing division and desecration of holy sites ( I presume the kotel is the first of many things that they will wreck). Reformed Judaism more closely represents Christianity than Judaism. Probably because it is rife with intermarriage with Christians and converts who don't go through proper and thorough conversions. Gay rabbis? Really? It's time for Reformed Judaism to do what Christianity eventually did: make a final break with Judaism and recognise that they are a separate religion altogether.

will be that if the temple was ready they would try to enter the Holy of Holies?

... obsessing over the Western Wall like a real bunch of religious fanatics. Would you people please try to take it easy?

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE. YOU AIN'T GOING TO CHANGE THEIR MINDS.

the WoW supporters are intermarrying out of existence. they are twice a year Jews anyway.

the religious women gathering at the kotel was organized by a woman who thought of the idea and put the word out. There were NO Rabbis involved.

Nobody is barring WOMEN at the Wall, you know better than that. It's not about women praying at the Wall, it's about women "praying" in an unacceptable, provocative way. Try entering a mosque without taking off your shoes and then make headlines about being discriminated. The Wall is administered by a religious body (being the most significant religious symbol in Judaism) and it has its rules of conduct. It's not the right place to try to start a reform, unless you are seeking attention, which is cheap.

If the women of the wall want topray as jews,they MUST respect the holliness and the customs of the REAL judaism ! Women have never wore tefilin or had yamakas on their head (Kippa) ! For god sake,women,stop using feminism to change religion ways,respect the kottel and the jewsih tradition ! I'm NOT a religious jew,I tend to be more of the average secular but we must draw the limit somewhere !!! Respect the kottel or don't go there !

Reform men & women can both visit the wall and pray, but they cannot hold Reform style services because the vast majority of Kotel worshipers want Orthodox customs at the site. Reform services at the Kotel is as absurd as Unitarian services at the Vatican.

Will you support the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. After all women are allowed to pray at the Kotel.5,000 women prayed their on Rosh Chodesh according to the custom of the place with no problem. But if one Jew were to quietly say the Shema on the Temple Mount they would be arrested by the Israeli police assuming the muslims didn't kill her first.