Women of the Wall's Anat Hoffman Still Not Officially Charged in Western Wall Incident

Co-founder of Women of the Wall Anat Hoffman will speak this Friday evening at the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York. Hoffman was arrested on July 12, 2010, for carrying a Torah scroll at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, considered to be the holiest site in Judaism. Women are not allowed to pray at the Western Wall in the most holy area reserved for Orthodox men.

On October 6, 2010 a new regulation was passed in Israel, saying that no Torahs may be brought into the Western Wall area, that there are 100 Torahs available for public use, which is plenty. None of those Torahs are in the segregated are for women, an area outside of the ultra-Orthodox controlled Western Wall Plaza).

The Jerusalem Police have recommended that the Ministry of Justice press charges against Anat Hoffman for the felony of “gravely obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duties”, in regards to her July arrest while holding a Torah at the Western Wall. The sentence for such a conviction is up to 3 years in prison.