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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Despite a victorious court ruling, women are still second-class citizens at the Western Wall
Description: There were whistles and angry shouts of “Go back to New York” and “Get Lost” last Wednesday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, as a group of observant Jewish women known as Women of the Wall conducted their monthly morning prayer service–complete with a small Torah scroll they’d smuggled in with them. Using the scroll is against the rules set down by the holy site’s authorities, which still only permits men to have the sacred scrolls or to chant prayers out loud.
And as has happened for years, the women had to run a gauntlet of security force...