In Israel, a Jerusalem Magistrate's Court yesterday ordered the release of 5 women who had been arrested after participating with Women of the Wall in their monthly women's prayer service near the Western Wall. According to Times of Israel, the women were arrested for wearing prayer shawls (traditionally worn only by men) during their Rosh Hodesh (new month) service. Women of the Wall have engaged in increasingly large prayer services since 1988 in their efforts to obtain legal recognition of egalitarian Jewish prayer at the Wall. The arrests came just as the Israeli government is moving toward a possible compromise between the more liberal branches of Judaism and the Orthodox rabbis who currently control the customs observed at the Western Wall plaza. Judge Sharon Lary-Bavly, in ordering the women's release from custody, said that there were no grounds for their arrest and likened actions by the police to blaming a rape victim for the clothes she wears.
UPDATE: A transcript of the Court hearing and judge's ruling is available online via Failed Messiah blog.
