Print This Page
Email this pageIRAC director interrogated, fingerprinted
Jerusalem police summoned Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, on January 5 for questioning and fingerprinting in connection with her activities with the Women of the Wall, an organization committed to realizing equal prayer rights at the Western Wall. Hoffman is the group’s chairwoman. Another member, wearing a tallit and carrying a Torah, was arrested at the Wall in late November on suspicion of violating the sanctity of a holy site.
“I was warned I was being investigated for committing a felony,” writes Hoffman. “And my crime? I performed a religious act that offended the feelings of others: praying out loud, reading the Torah, and wearing a tallit at the Kotel.”
Hoffman criticized the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovich, saying the site needs to be “liberated” from his control, just as Israeli paratroops liberated it in 1967.
“Rabinovich is an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who was appointed rabbi of the Wall by secular leaders in Israel who, like many Israelis, were brought up to believe that there is only one brand of authentic Judaism – Rabinovich’s brand,” Hoffman continues. “He was given absolute jurisdiction over the site, and he has abused his power. But the real problem is not Rabinovich: The problem is the absolute power he has over Israeli Judaism.”
Hoffman asked supporters to write to the Israeli ambassador in their country to express their outrage over her interrogation and fingerprinting, as well as their support for religious pluralism in the Jewish state. Click here to download the suggested text.
Hoffman.
