ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Sunday Morning News

Israeli Women Anger Orthodox Jews in Battle For New Religious Rights

Aired June 4, 2000 - 9:28 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Call it a revolution of sorts in Israel that's bringing both smiles and signs of anger and frustration. Depends on who you ask.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel explains that some women are angering Orthodox Jews by asserting new rights.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Don't sing, you witch." Curses and prayers, joy and anger at Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall. According to Orthodox Jews, women should not wear prayer shawls, read from the holy Torah, the preserve of men, or pray out loud.

RABBI AVRAHAM RAVITZA: When you pray, you have to be with God, not with the women.

KESSEL: Women of the Wall, they call themselves, Jewish women from Israel and the United States who want to pray just like men do. After an 11-year battle, Israel's high court upheld their right to do so, including at this place, which Jews revere as a symbol of their unity.

(on camera): Even among the major ongoing political and peace moves in the Middle East, this is an issue that is arousing intense emotions and passions among Israelis as any.

(voice-over): Religious political parties have put in motion parliamentary procedures whereby any woman fulfilling the court's principal ruling would be liable to seven years imprisonment.

RAVITZA: They can't have the right to come to us and to say, Well, I think you should change your faith, your religious laws.

KESSEL: Israeli police make sure irate men are not allowed to venture into the designated women's prayer section, or to disrupt violently the prayer service.

The arguments intensify. "Your prayers will also rise to God from here," says Judith. "Why not pray quietly by the Wall instead of provoking us?" "It's not provocation," responds Peggy. "I'll fight for your rights, but accept my right to pray as I see fit." The court has given the Israeli government six months to provide conditions for the women to pray at the Wall as they wish.

"The church is over there," this Orthodox man yells. "You're in the wrong place."

For now, the service, with the offending prayer shawls and other religious artifacts, and a reading from the Torah scroll, is carried on a short distance away in a building which, in the Middle Ages, used to serve Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem.

Some Israelis, even among those who support them in principle, fear real confrontation.

ANAT HOFFMAN, WOMEN OF THE WALL: I've seen civil wars on worse topics. If there is injustice with us, there's injustice everywhere. It's an injustice in Israel. They want to rule us and keep us under control. Well, this is finished and over and done with. Women in this millennium are no longer under control.

KESSEL: Battle lines drawn.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top  © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.