Speaker to discuss efforts to raise tolerance in Israel

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Most Americans would consider the offense that got Anat Hoffman arrested and thrown into jail last month odd at least and appalling at worst.

Hoffman was arrested for praying at Jerusalem’s Western Wall.

Hoffman spent the night in jail, the first time that has happened to her in the more than two decades she and other women have been praying at the wall in an effort to win women greater freedom to practice their religion at the holy site.

Hoffman is a founding member and chairwoman of Women of the Wall, a multidenominational advocacy group, and executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center. On Sunday, she will discuss “Shalom Bayit (A Peaceful Home): Fostering Religious Tolerance, Pluralism, Diversity and Civility in Israel” during the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas’ annual meeting at Temple Sinai, 9001 Hillpointe Road.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. For reservations, call 732-0556.

Also during the meeting, the federation will launch an Israel Emergency Fund to raise money for humanitarian support to Israel in the wake of last week’s rocket attacks. Mayor Shmuel Rifman of the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council in Israel and David Siegel, Israel consul general in Los Angeles, also are scheduled to address the meeting.

During a recent phone interview from Jerusalem, Hoffman noted that access to the Western Wall is governed by “ultra-Orthodox” religious authorities who decide “what is allowed and what is not allowed.”

Chief among the things not allowed by women are singing or praying out loud, wearing a prayer shawl, and reading from the Torah, Hoffman said.

“In most of the Jewish world, these activities are part of the free ritual and expression of women,” Hoffman added. But, when women first attempted 24 years ago to pray in the way they wished at the Western Wall, “we encountered tremendous opposition” in the forms of both verbal and physical abuse.

Such abuse has continued even as the women gather monthly to pray. Women’s groups in Israel have been waging battle in Israeli courts for more than two decades, arguing that “we should be allowed to pray as is our custom,” Hoffman said.

Because religious law and civil law are so intertwined in Israel, Hoffman said, women have been arrested and detained – and then almost always see charges against them dropped – for pursuing their expression of their faith.

“We have a vision of the role of women in Judaism, which is we want to be equal citizens in our religion, and that seems to be the final frontier for women,” Hoffman said.

On Oct. 16, Hoffman was, herself, arrested and was forced to spend the night in jail after praying at the wall. She still holds harsh memories of that night.

“I wish I could get (the arresting officer) out of my head,” she said.

Hoffman said the advocacy group she helped to found, Women of the Wall (http://womenofthewall.org.il), has received multidenominational support from all over the world, from both within Judaism and without. That gives her cause for optimism.

“If you can understand, what is so scary to the rabbis about our activities is that … a whole faction of ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox women will be asking, ‘Why not?’ ” Hoffman said.

” ‘Why not?’ is the most subversive question in the world. Why not a black student? Why not a black president in the White House? ‘Why nots’ are very challenging.

“I call tell you, we see Orthodox and secular women asking us, ‘Why not?’ That is a revolution. That is why I want to be at the wall.”

Even in Israel, “we’ve never had so much positive support,” Hoffman said. “Like, this last month, so many people say, ‘I can’t sit on the fence anymore’ and are joining. We expect that many may, and that’s wonderful. I can’t tell you how wonderful.”

Hoffman said that, in her presentation Sunday, she’ll “talk about some of our fantastic successes” as well as “some of our defeats.”

But, she said, “I don’t think people will leave with the feeling that what they have learned about Israel will make them love Israel less. Love is what remains after you know the truth, and we’ll be talking about some truth, and I’m sure the love will remain.”

“I think one would leave this presentation feeling proud that Israel is a live democracy, with some blemishes in it,” Hoffman said.

And, she added, “who doesn’t?”

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@review journal.com or 702-383-0280.