Rabbi Susan Silverman and her daughter were part of a group of women arrested for conducting a prayer service at Jerusalem's Western Wall.
Image by Tali Mayer / AP
Ten women, including comedian Sarah Silverman's sister and niece, were arrested in Jerusalem yesterday after they tried to participate in prayers at the Western Wall.
Rabbi Susan Silverman and her daughter Hallel Abramowitz are members of "Women of the Wall," a group that has spent the past 25 years fighting for the right to worship freely at the Kotel, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. Men and women are both allowed to pray at the wall, but only in separate sections and under strict rules set by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, a government-funded Orthodox group. In 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the foundation's ban on women wearing prayer shawls, reading from the Torah or praying audibly at the Wall.
