Ezrat Nashim

Scholars have long debated the existence of Ezrat Nashim in synagogues during the periods of the Second Temple, the Mishnah, and the Talmud.

Shmuel Safrai, through a combination of textual analysis and archaeological evidence, has argued that while women consistently attended synagogue services, there is no definitive evidence to support the existence of a partition separating the genders or the existence of a Ezrat Nashim.

[1] The archaeologist Lee Levin agrees with Safrai that not only is there no archaeological evidence for the existence of Ezrat Nashim in ancient synagogues, but there are also many ancient synagogues that have only a single prayer hall, indicating that there was no segregation at all.

In the mid-19th century, Reform synagogues in Germany and Austria introduced separate pews for men and women on the same floor.

[4] Many Orthodox synagogues built in the 20th and 21st centuries do not have a separate Ezrat Nashim area, instead partitioning a single floor into men's and women's sections with a mechitza.