The sister of comic Sarah Siverman was just one of nearly a dozen women who were detained today at the Western Wall for praying while wearing a tallit.
Susan Silverman, a Reform rabbi living in Jerusalem, was detained with her teenage daughter, along with Anat Hoffman, leader of the Women of the Wall, the group that organizes the monthly prayer groups, along with eight other women.
Several male Israeli paratroopers who captured the wall as part of the 1967 War also attended, in what organizers say is a clear indication of the need to “liberate” the wall once again.
“The prayer became history when the paratroopers who freed the Kotel, Israeli heroes, stood with us, and claimed the right of all Jews- men and women- to pray here, as they believe and see fit,” Hoffman said.