Israel Matzav

The real goal of 'Women of the Wall'

AVRAHAM’S RESEARCH demonstrates that Hoffman and Kallus are political animals, not just spiritual seekers motivated by their intense attachment to the Western Wall. And it strongly suggests that the prime motivation of the leaders of WoW is to advance an agenda consistent with their other political work.

The power of the Western Wall derives, in large part, from its role as a symbol of Jewish continuity, from the time of the First and Second Temples until today. Those who identify with organizations like Ir Amim and Emek Shaveh, which oppose Israeli archeological work in the Old City, as part of a sinister “Judaization of Jerusalem,” and who are allied with groups calling for the return of east Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and Western Wall, to Palestinian control, are apparently not terribly moved by Jewish continuity and its symbols.

In truth, Hoffman has always been rather forthright that the Western Wall Plaza had value in her eyes primarily as a place to make political statements – “to be seen,” in her words – and provoke confrontation. Hoffman admits she feels no particular attachment to places, the Western Wall included. And her Reform Movement long ago declared, “One should not consider the Western Wall as possessing any sanctity.”

She has no answer for the question posed long ago by Hillel Halkin, “Are there no other places in Jerusalem to practice Jewish feminism, that they must do it at the one site where it is sure to infuriate large numbers of Orthodox Jews?” – a question that takes on special gravity given Hoffman’s admission that the Western Wall has no real sanctity in her eyes.

Offending others is not an unfortunate byproduct, but the very purpose of WoW. Again, Hoffman admitted as much recently in explaining her theoretical acceptance of Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky’s proposal for WoW to move their prayer rites from the current Western Wall Plaza to a fully refurbished area further south on the Western Wall (albeit while conditioning that acceptance on 16 untenable conditions). “WoW,” she conceded, in explanation of the new approach, “is not the right group for bringing about change in the Orthodox world.”

In other words, the 25 years of confrontation were not, at least for Hoffman, about the yearning for proximity to the Western Wall, but to “model” new and better modes of prayer for her benighted Orthodox sisters.

IT IS IMPORTANT to understand the ways in which WoW’s activities serve the radical agenda of Hoffman, Kallus and Sachs. WoW serves to “kasher” many of the organizations with which it is associated, in particular the NIF, which serves as both a funder of WoW and a conduit for its tax-deductible contributions.

WoW wraps itself in the cloak of religious pluralism.

For most American Jews, the belief that “there is no right way to be a Jew” is both the first and last of their theological principles. Accordingly, religious pluralism is as “American Jewish” as apple pie and motherhood – sadly, a good deal more so than the latter.

By selling itself as an organization committed to the benign cause – at least in the eyes of non-Orthodox American Jews – of religious pluralism, the NIF is able to obscure other parts of its agenda that might find less favor with many of its contributors.

But there is another more insidious way in which WoW helps to advance the radical Left agenda in Israel.

Groups like B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence, which uses former IDF soldiers to advance a narrative of widespread Israeli war crimes, seek to alienate American Jews from their identification with Israel. By doing so, they hope to increase Israeli Jews’ sense of isolation and lack of international support, and to thereby convince them that the only way out is to conclude a “peace” with the Palestinians on almost any terms.

Labels: Adalah, archaeology, Israel's suicidal Left, Jerusalem, New Israel Fund, Women of the Wall

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:39 PM