Sarah Silverman's Sister Was Detained By Israeli Cops for Wearing a Prayer Shawl at the Western Wall

By Katie J.M. Baker  |  February 11, 2013 | 6:40pm
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Here’s the gist of the controversy over Israel’s holy Western Wall: lots of Jewish women think they deserve the right to pray aloud, read from the Torah, and wear religious garments there, just as men do, but the ultra-Orthodox caretakers of the site have made sure they’re prohibited by law from doing just that. Things have gotten so tense over the past few months that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assigned famous former dissident Natan Sharansky to broker a deal. You know, because Israel doesn’t have more pressing shit to figure out.

Apparently it’s not going that well, because Israeli police detained 10 women at the Western Wall today for wearing prayer shawls, including Susan Silverman, a reform rabbi who also happens to be Sarah Silverman’s sister, and her 17-year-old daughter.

Silverman said that they were among more than 100 women who regularly meet there along with the feminist group “Women of the Wall.” All they’re asking for is to be able to pray there for an hour every month. Is that so much to ask? It seems so. Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said the women had acted “against regulations set by the High Court.” This is getting ridiculous. Don’t the cops have more important issues to attend to?

[Reuters]

 
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