Women of the Wall (Hebrew: נשות הכותל, Neshot HaKotel) is a multi-denominational Jewish feminist[1] organization based in Israel whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray at the Western Wall, also called the Kotel, in a fashion that includes singing, reading aloud from the Torah and wearing religious garments (tallit, tefillin and kippah).

[20] Supporters highlighted the fact that only in Israel are Jewish women prohibited from praying according to their custom in a public location[21] and a 2003 High Court ruling which prevented them from conducting prayer services at the wall[22] was overturned in 2013.

[7] However, later that year it was announced that the plan approved in January 2016 to designate a new space at the Kotel that would be available for egalitarian prayer and which would not be controlled by the Rabbinate had been suspended.

[23] The organisation was created by Jewish women, mostly from the diaspora,[24][25] and a significant number of participants are American immigrants or part of the English-speaking community.

The poll was conducted by Professor Tamar Hermann, who noted that Women of the Wall received highest levels of support from educated, secular, Ashkenazi Israelis.

[36] Women of the Wall has fought a legal battle asserting a right to conduct organized prayer at the Kotel and challenging government and private intervention in its efforts.

[44] In December 2012, following pressure from non-Orthodox US Jews,[45] Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, was asked by the Prime Minister to find a solution to the dispute.

"[47] In April 2013, Sharansky suggested constructing a third, egalitarian prayer center at the Wall that is identical in size and standing to the plaza currently controlled by the Orthodox Jews.

MK Stav Shaffir (Labour) said "I usually do not wear a tallit, but it is my honor and duty to stand here and protect the rights of all Jews from around the world to pray as they desire and believe."

MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid), who herself supports the right of the women to assemble, said she was "shocked" that fellow MKs decided to blatantly disobey the law and ignore Supreme Court rulings.

MK Miri Regev (Likud) called the MKs attendance a "provocation" and referred to the groups "anarchistic actions" which had "turned into a national sport among the extreme Left in Israel."

MK Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) called the women radicals and suggested that their "gross violations" at the site may lead to civil war.

[53] They have the support of large American non-Orthodox denominations, which view the issue of women's rights to pray at the Wall as a high-profile opportunity to promote gender-egalitarian Jewish prayer, which most Israelis have never experienced.

About fifty Jewish men in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim engaged in hurling rocks and slashing tires of public buses carrying ads for the egalitarian services for girls.

[67] Palestinian Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs Youssef Ideiss protested that the proposed egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall violates the status-quo agreement governing the area.

[93] The group's leader, Anat Hoffman, was interrogated by the police in January 2010, fingerprinted, and told that she could be charged with a felony over her involvement with Women of the Wall.

[100][101] In April 2013, a group UK Progressive rabbis protested to the Israeli ambassador calling threats to arrest women saying Kaddish "shocking".

[106] The Women of the Wall have consistently claimed that there is no single "custom of the place" and that their right to pray is a religious freedom enshrined in Israeli law.

They repeatedly stress that the group is not Reform Jews, but come from all affiliations and that their conduct strictly adheres to Orthodox Jewish Law and that their prayer is genuine and not a political stunt.

Their central mission is to "achieve the social and legal recognition of our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall."

[110] Their struggle is also seen as an attempt to undermine their influence and as a strategy for non-Orthodox groups to gradually gain official recognition at state level, paving the way for the introduction of religious pluralism in Israel.

[111] In a letter to the group, Yehuda Getz, the government appointed administrator of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, urged them to stop "straying from the hallowed traditions of generations of Jews before you"[109] and in 1989, the Israeli Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapiro and the Religious Affairs Minister suggested that these women "pray individually, silently, and preferably at home – not at the wall.

"[39] In 2009, former chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef said: "There are stupid women who come to the Western Wall, put on a tallit (prayer shawl), and pray...

Nehama Leibowitz likened their worship to a form of "sport",[116] and the widow of Sephardi Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu said the group had "gone completely mad" and their actions amount to "desecration".

[117] Ultra-Orthodox former Jerusalem city councilwoman Mina Fenton said the women are "a fringe group that attracts people who read the prayer book upside down.

"[118] Disapproval included a wide range of name-calling, such as calling Women of the Wall "witches", "prostitutes", "weird", "childish", and "provocateurs", for wanting to pray in their fashion.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who is considered the leader of the Reform movement in Israel, argued that WOW's request of 11 hours a year[clarification needed] did not indicate an urgency that required a change in policy, but he came to support WOW's goals because they align with the Reform movement's opposition to the exclusion of women from religious society in Israel.

Pollsters for the Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI) and Tel Aviv University surveyed Jews in Israel and found that a clear majority, 64%, of those who defined themselves as secular, and 53% of those who described themselves as traditional but not religious supported the right of Women of the Wall to worship in their fashion.

[140] Shakdiel maintains that Israeli society's general opposition to the Women of the Wall is a result of a religious and secular alliance against what they perceive as a feminist challenge.

Ran Hirschl believes the conflict is "a contest for cultural hegemony between a secularist-libertarian elite and traditionally peripheral group," namely the ultra-Orthodox community.