Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

RELIGION

Jewish women pray at Jerusalem holy site, angering rabbi

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • e7ad9c06-
    Image 1 of 3

    Jewish women wear prayer shawls as they pray during the Jewish holiday of Passover in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, April 24, 2016. A liberal women's group has held a special Passover prayer service at a Jerusalem holy site, drawing criticism from the site's ultra-Orthodox rabbi, who called it a "provocation." (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) (The Associated Press)

  • b8bf470c-
    Image 2 of 3

    Ultra-Orthodox Jewish youth yell at a journalist covering the Jewish women's prayer during the Jewish holiday of Passover in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City, April 24, 2016. A liberal women's group has held a special Passover prayer service at a Jerusalem holy site, drawing criticism from the site's ultra-Orthodox rabbi, who called it a "provocation." (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) (The Associated Press)

  • 0039208f-
    Image 3 of 3

    Covered in prayer shawls, ultra-Orthodox Jewish men read from a Thora scroll during the Jewish holiday of Passover in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, April 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) (The Associated Press)

JERUSALEM – A liberal women's group has held a special Passover prayer service at a Jerusalem holy site, drawing criticism from the site's ultra-Orthodox rabbi, who called it a "provocation."

The group, Women of the Wall, calls for gender equality at the Western Wall, the holiest Jewish prayer site. The site is overseen by a rabbi who enforces conservative customs, including separate prayers for men and women.

The group planned to hold an all-female "priestly blessing," a prayer typically done by men, but Israel's attorney general banned it from doing so. The Justice Ministry said a women-led priestly blessing has never been held at the Western Wall.

In a compromise, dozens of women prayed Sunday, but a group leader said they did not perform the priestly blessing. Some Orthodox Jews protested.