An organized group of Israeli women protest Jewish Law with a photo campaign of women praying with the Torah.
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In July 2010, Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of Women of the Wall—an Israeli organization that strives to secure women’s right to hold and read the Torah and wear religious garments at the Western Wall—was arrested. The reason: She was holding a Torah at the Western Wall. In the aftermath of this event, Women of the Wall initiated a campaign, asking women around the world to send photographs of themselves holding a Torah along with a letter of solidarity to political and religious leaders in Israel. The letter, sent to Binyamin Netanyahu, Rubi Rivlin, Tzipi Livni, Natan Sharansky, and Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz read as follows:

I am writing today to tell you that Women of the Wall are not alone. Our daughters and our rabbis, our mothers and our grandmothers, our cantors and our teachers hold the Torah, read from the Torah, and study the Torah every day. Hundreds of thousands of women and young girls embrace our Torah Scrolls while their prayers reverberate in our synagogues. We pray without disturbance, without fear. Our prayer is seen as normal and accepted. Only in Jerusalem do women pray with fear and only in Jerusalem are women treated as criminals for practicing Judaism. On Rosh Hodesh Av 5770 we experienced unthinkable abuse by the very political and legal system that we, as Jews of the world, established to offer sanctuary and to initiate the renewal of modern Jewish life. How is it that as Jewish women, we are free in Berlin, in Rome, and in Chicago, while in Jerusalem it is illegal and profane for us to read from the Torah? We will continue to send you pictures from our families, synagogues, and communities. You will see women read, study and embrace Torah Scrolls. On our faces will be joy; not the expression of horror captured by journalists as police took a woman holding a Torah into custody. We ask you to open your eyes and see what is ordinary every place else in the world: women embracing Torah, reading from the Torah, rejoicing with the Torah and learning from the Torah. We ask that you see and be blind no more to the injustice of religious oppression.


When we at 614 called Women of the Wall for the latest update, here’s what we learned from the organization:

Our campaign rocked the social media world. We had over 4,500 people from all over the world send a letter to decision makers in Israel and even submit their photos, for our additional photo campaign. The photos, women holding Torahs in solidarity with our cause, also appeared on our website to further promote our mission. We are honored and humbled by these women and supporters that believe in our cause. We heard through our many supporters that congregations around the world organized photo shoots at their synagogues in order to give all congregants, friends and family the opportunity to take a photo with a Torah. We take great pride in learning this information and hope that when these women held the Torah—many for the first time—they held on to that moment.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office informed us that each and every letter we sent was opened and read according to Israeli law, which states that any letter sent by an Israeli citizen to a government office must receive a reply.

Today, we are still receiving letters, which you can submit from our website, and looking ahead we hope to have another campaign like this that will once again reach out to the international community for support in our struggle. Now more than ever we believe the world can finally see the issues of gender discrimination and segregation taking place in Israel. As Women of the Wall, we have been fighting this struggle for equal rights for women to pray at the Western Wall for over 23 years. The Western Wall is the most religious holy site for all Jews and a crucial part of society for all Israelis. If women do not have equal rights to pray there, with their voices, wearing a prayer shawl (tallit) and with a Torah scroll on the women’s side, then how can the rest of society evolve as an open place for pluralism and respect for all?

To learn more about Women of the Wall, and to see photos from the Torah Photo Campaign, visit http://womenofthewall.org.il.