In Jerusalem, Clash Between 21st Century Women and Orthodox Jews Takes Center Stage

Jerusalem is a city blessed but also cursed by its own holiness. No more so than here at 'Ground Zero', the religious epicentre within the walled Old City, beneath the most disputed holy site -- the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary as known to Muslims, Har Habayit or the Temple Mount for Jews.

The Western Wall is the last remnant of the ancient Jewish Temple, Judaism's holiest site. Since Israel took control of the Old City in the 1967 Arab-Israel War, the Wall has been a symbol of national unity. 

More recently it has exposed rifts among Israeli Jews. And, threatened dissent between Israel and liberal Jewish groups in the U.S. 

An unseemly episode in this rift took place at the Wall last month. The fracas involved Israeli police, Orthodox Israelis and a group of Jewish women from Israel and the U.S. who are trying to assert their claim to a place in Judaism's religious practices. In Orthodox Judaism, women are denied this. 

The fighting broke out when the 'Women of the Wall' tried to pray at the Wall with a Torah scroll, a parchment copy of the Books of the Bible, Judaism's founding text. 

The Torah took quite a battering and Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of the women's prayer group, was detained. As she was unceremoniously bundled into a police van, she shouted, "We're doing nothing wrong. We're fully within the guidelines of the Supreme Court ruling. There's absolutely no reason for me to be arrested." 

Under pressure from Orthodox rabbis, in 2003, Israel's Supreme Court prohibited women from reading from the Torah within the Western Wall plaza. 

However, in a bid to end the regular protests mounted by the Women of the Wall, the Court ruled they could conduct their own prayer services, including with a Torah scroll, at a more remote segment of the Wall. The area known as Robinson's Arch is out of sight of the Orthodox worshippers. 

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi responsible for the Wall, says the women are waging a "fanatical" political struggle. "People of all faiths and all degrees of Jewish observance are welcome here. But they're expected to respect the feelings of those who pray here all the time, and to behave accordingly." 

Hoffman retorts that her group was not being offensive: "We were simply singing and praying, holding the Torah on our way to Robinson's Arch to complete our service." 

It's not the first time Hoffman and members of her group have been arrested for trying to pray at the Wall. In January, Hoffman was questioned, fingerprinted and threatened with a charge of having committed a felony. 

According to the Orthodox practices, women can pray at the Wall but only within a small section adjacent to the much larger space allocated men. 

'No women allowed here', reads the sign at the entrance to the men's section. Women can hear the prayer service, but not assist the men; a head-level barrier separates them. 

This battle between Orthodox rabbis and the Women of the Wall is a gender war among Jews. Know your place, say the Orthodox to the women who are challenging the rabbis' domination of religious space. 

It is an added complication on this battleground of a potential war of religion between Judaism and Islam: In addition to sister religions fighting for rights and supremacy, now sisters are pitted against brothers of the same religion, brothers against sisters. 

"Today they say women cannot hold the Torah," says Hoffman, "Tomorrow it will be, women cannot look at the Torah. Then it will be, women cannot be at the Wall at all. Before you know it, all Jerusalem will be segregated. That's where we're headed." 

Rabbi Rabinowitz counters: "This is a place of unity, not of discord and polarisation. Let us not forget that two thousand years ago our Holy Temple was destroyed because of internal hatred and strife."