An Experience (Or Two)

Today has been an intense day for a number of us girls, with a visit to the Kotel this morning to be a part of the Women of the Wall service, and then an optional lecture in the evening about the Eichman Trials. Both of these events asked many more questions then they answered, and left us emotionally drained.

I found the Women of the Wall Rosh Chodesh service to be surprising normal. The content of the actual service was extremely similar to that which might be seen in any New Zealand shul – both orthodox and reform. In this sense, it was almost disappointing to be a part of the now normal davening - entirely in Hebrew - that is so integral to prayer in Israel. However, it was the little nuances that made the morning interesting.

First of all, we had to be at the Wall at 7 in the morning, so that there wouldn’t be too many people there to protest. Whilst everyone in the crowd of about 30 wore a tallit, they were wrapped around our shoulders like scarves, as wearing it as a religious garment is illegal for women and we would have been arrested. It is also illegal for women to touch or read from torahs at the Kotel, and so a rotating guard of sorts looked after a torah outside the gates to the Wall. Later, a singing procession (including men) carried the torah to the less controversial area of the Western Wall not used for daily prayer, where a section of torah was read.

It was, however, the reaction of the orthodox people surrounding us that shocked me most. There was a security guard who openly patrolled our group of women (male, in the women’s section...) and was quite unpleasant. At one point he even pushed through our group in the middle of a prayer to talk to some people outside the praying section. He jumped up onto a bench in order to chat more easily to them, and stood one foot on the prayer book I had momentarily put down! Although he apologised briefly when I pointed it out, I was surprised with the ease with which he brushed off the validity of anything associated with the group, despite every aspect of the service being conventionally orthodox.

Many Chassidic women were also extremely unpleasant, and used a mixture of pointed death stares, abusive sounding prayers of their own, yelling of rude comments that I was glad to not understand, and even spitting at us! While I realise that the Women of the Wall are challenging the very fabric on which their lives are so precariously based, I found it both hypocritical and crude that they would turn their backs to the Wall and spit on supposedly highly sacred ground with such simultaneous ease and force.

This was nothing compared to their male counterparts though. Almost all the men in the male section of the Wall gathered in a group as close to ours as possible, while still on their side of the partition. They then proceeded to conduct an extremely loud service in an effort to drown us out. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that several of them were screaming out prayers in an effort to make us less heard. During their silent sections, if we happened to still be singing, they would all furiously shush us and then mumble on. This was the part that most bugged me – the fact that the men clearly felt that women had a legitimate place at the Wall, but only as long as they were not seen or heard.

After the torah service with them later that morning, I was left feeling confused at best. Although it was great to see women who felt so strongly about a cause, and who were prepared to fight for equality in an area that is often forgotten, I wasn’t convinced by them. When I compared our service to those I have been to in normal congregations, and my previous experiences of Hakotel, their stance seemed pale and ineffective. Furthermore, I hadn’t seen anyone outside of the Women of the Wall group who was even vaguely intrigued by the group of women wearing “scarves” and singing as they carried a torah down the winding road in the Old City. For me (but not necessarily anyone else) this was a big disappointment. Furthermore, although I realise that they are protesting about the Wall from an ideological stance in terms of the inequality between men and women in Orthodox Judaism, it seemed somewhat...redundant...in my opinion. Perhaps that is not the right word to use, but essentially what I felt these women are trying to do is make a very Orthodox area (Hakotel is officially considered an orthodox shul) more Reform, and I couldn’t see the issue with just going to one of the many beautiful conservative synagogues within walking distance of the area instead. At heart, I found the actual women inspiring, but their cause didn’t make my heart beat any faster – to my great disappointment. However, I hope they continue their passive protest, because the way in which the Chassidic people treated us was so disgusting that I feel it should be continually challenged.

This evening, feeling suitably exhausted, Nikki (a girl from Netzer Australia) and I walked to The Union for Conservative Judaism, where a lecture was being given about the Eichman Trial. When we eventually found the auditorium in the next building over, we were surprised and delighted to find out that the guest speaker was none other than Justice Gabriel Bach, the senior prosecutor at the Eichman Trial. This was a rare and extremely special opportunity that we were lucky enough to stumble across (and even luckier that it was on our free night!). The lecture turned out to be stunning. The focus of the talk was the actual trial – evidence, Eichman the man, the reactions of Israelis and other countries, and how the case was put together.

Although fascinating, it was also frightening in its content at times. One piece of evidence that was used and described to us was the postcards sent by Hungarian Jews to their peers in Hungary, before they were put in gas chambers. Bach described to us in great detail how Eichman was told by Hitler not to let any Jews escape Hungary. To achieve this, he had a group of Jews quickly taken from their homes to a death camp. At the gas chambers, they were forced to write postcards to their friends and family – dictated by Eichman – about how lovely where they were living was, and how they should hurry and join them. A witness (who still had his postcard) then apparently proceeded to describe how he had received it from a brother and not suspected a thing. His entire family followed, including his wife and two young children, none of whom he ever saw again. It was these kinds of stories that had Eichman conclusively convicted for all 15 charges of various crimes against humanity (including several counts of genocide). He is the only person that has ever been served capital punishment in Israel.

This lecture was absolutely fascinating on an intellectual level, but it also raised many questions about justice, the price of freedom, and how humane we should be towards prisoners. Because of Eichman’s cold pride in his personal command over the murder of millions of people, and his complete lack of any remorse beyond mouth honour for the trial, I didn’t even flinch over the fact that the man speaking to us issued Eichman’s death sentence. However, Nikki had a real issue with how the fledgling Jewish state, after all its people had suffered, could put someone to death. I suppose this is what really connected the two events for me – Women of the Wall in the morning, and the Eichman Trial lecture in the evening.  The level of compassion for all people, despite their religious orientation or personal beliefs was most lacking in both cases. At Hakotel, this resulted in a lack of equality and understanding between our fellow Jews. However, in the Eichman Trial the results were much more absolute – death of countless Jews, and then of Eichman himself.  In both cases, the Jewish concept of humanity was called into question, and I was left wondering how much it was actually honoured in each situation.

Furthermore, it led me to wonder whether our goal of creating and living in an equal, moral Jewish society is compromised by the sheer evil of one character. Can we allow the same treatment for those seemingly less humane or worthy of equality than others? Perhaps the answer lies in finding out if in fact, one life is equal to another, albeit tainted or evil, and then asking if the answer to this affects our Jewish identity. Do you see what I mean by there being more questions asked than answered?

With potentially naive optimism, everyone who was involved in the events of today felt both empowered and enlightened as Jews of a modern world. And despite the dark nature of our ponderings, Nikki and I had a fantastic time at the lecture, even if we had been spat at while praying that morning. Go figure...

For now,

Sarah & Sapeer