2016/04/03 by Yitzhak Reiter · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Religion and Society Interactions #Middle East Politics and Society #Status quo #Hegemony #Orthodoxy #Judaism #Gender studies #Sociology #Feminism #Scholarship #Politics #Torah #Prayer #Appeal #Law #Political science #Religious studies #History
paper · doi:10.1353/sho.2016.0001
openalex publication_date 2016/04/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
This article analyzes the struggle of the Women of the Wall (WoW), a minority group of religious, activist, and feminist women challenging the Orthodox, male, hegemonic status quo at Judaism’s holiest site: the Western Wall. Since 1988, the group has been holding prayer services every Rosh Hodesh at the Wall with and without interruptions according to its custom—wrapped in colorful tallitot and reading aloud from the Torah. This article, based on interviews with the major political actors involved and content analysis of primary documents and publications, presents the action strategies of the various parties involved and analyzes the dispute’s conflict resolution methods. It explores a series of questions: first, what has enabled legal and public recognition of a minority group’s local custom that challenges the hegemonic status quo at the Western Wall? Second, how has a small group of women succeeded over more powerful forces in breaking the status quo in favor of a gender-oriented, pluralistic-religious agenda? Third, what are the implications of these achievements for arrangements at the Wall and other contentious holy places? This case contributes to existing scholarship on religious feminism as well as on shared and divided holy spaces, as the controversy exists not between two religions, but between different streams within Judaism.