Women of the Wall call out female MKs over segregated Hanukkah candle lighting

A Jewish and democratic country must allow for full and equal representation and inclusion of women in all public religious events.

DECEMBER 24, 2019 11:03

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lighting a candle for the first night of Hanukkah (photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lighting a candle for the first night of Hanukkah

(photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)

To the Esteemed MK’s Gila Gamliel, Tzipi Hotovely, Miri Regev, and Yifat Shasha-Bitton,

I am reaching out because I too value deeply Israel’s well-being as a Jewish and democratic country. But far beyond my position as a concerned citizen, I turn to you as your sister.

Hanukkah is soon approaching, and so are the requisite festivities. However, Israel’s official Hanukkah candle-lighting is a sign of dark times rather than a bastion of light: no women may attend, as Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has insisted on holding the ceremony on the men’s side of the prayer space. This decision is unjustified and unacceptable.

You have been invited to participate instead in separate candle-lighting events. These ceremonies will be held on rooftops in the Old City, from which you can see the breathtaking panorama of the Western Wall in all its humble, defiant glory - but from which you cannot be seen. At most, your presence will serve as a token of the patriarchal authority’s generosity, an inoculation against accusations of exclusion, all the while maintaining a blatantly unjust state of affairs. Acquiescing to this separate-but-unequal accommodation would be suggesting tacit approval to this petty consolation. I beseech you to reconsider.

As elected officials, you are entrusted with the duty to advocate for the good of Israel’s collective values, the ones we all honor in the words of our anthem Hatikvah, the very ones we celebrate through the flames of the Chanukah lights. A Jewish and democratic country must allow for full and equal representation and inclusion of women in all public religious events. The notion of tolerance does not extend to standing idly by discriminatory treatment, all the more so when this treatment is enacted under the guise of fealty to Jewish Law. When women are fully permitted, and according to most opinions obligated, to light and bless the Chanukah candles, there is no justification for relegating women to the sidelines, especially under the auspices of Israel’s officials.

As leaders, and as women devoted to fighting for the good of the Jewish State against all odds, I urge you to rescind your acceptance of Rabbi Yosef’s invitation and make the reasons for your objection clear: women are not second-class citizens in Israel.

I trust that you will act in accordance with your conscience and with the promises you have made to the people of Israel, to protect and defend the interests of freedom, equality, and justice.

Wishing you a Chag Urim Sameach, Happy Festival of Lights,

Yochi Rappeport, Executive Director, Women of the Wall