Attorney Rene Feinstein told Yisrael Hayom she is counted among the founders of the Original Women of the Wall (O-WoW) organization, which set out to find its place in the women’s section of the Kosel, not at or near Robinson’s Arch.

In her interview with Steve Ganot, she explains the Reform and Conservative Movements have been negotiating with the government for years a prayer area at the Kosel for egalitarian prayer services including siddurim and Sifrei Torah. She admits they do not have equal access nor do they have Sifrei Torah and seforim provided as is the case in other areas of the holy site.

What happened today is the WoW agreed that if they receive the ok for a Sefer Torah, siddurim, tallis and tefilin, they would accept the arrangement at Robinson’s Arch, which today’ egalitarian prayer area agreement. Ms. Feinstein adds despite Supreme Court rulings of the past, Kosel Rav Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz prevents this and even works to prevent them from bringing in their own Torah, adding they have succeeded at times doing so.

She is not smiling over the new agreement, saying “It’s not the Kotel. It is not the place Jews have been coming since 1967 and a lot longer than that. It is not the place Jews come to pray and cry, it is not the place diplomats are taken…All Jewish People should be allowed to pray there in accordance with their custom”.

Feinstein explains that the Kotel is open to everyone and people come dressed for the most part unlike the “ultra-Orthodox” as she calls them, explaining the noise from the men’s section davening is constant so clearly, that is not what “bothers” them but it is the fact “our service is different from theirs. We simply cannot be excluded because we have a different practice”.

Feinstein adds she is with the WoW group on Rosh Chodesh and will continue doing so for as long as they daven at the Kotel. She adds her faction also comes often during the week.

When asked how long it will take for the money to be allocated for the egalitarian prayer area, Feinstein blames Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee Moshe Gafne for holding up the funding, explaining Gafne announced he will not release the necessary funds to advance the project. Until such time the new prayer area is ready, all factions of WoW will continue congregating and praying in the women’s section of the Kosel.

Feinstein explains there is a ‘lawsuit pending with the Israel Supreme Court” over their right to read from Sifrei Torah in the women’s section and she is confident it is a “winner”, adding if they win, she cannot say how this will affect the agreement pertaining to the egalitarian area.

When asked if her faction is mainly Orthodox, she explains “we continue to be a multidenominational group, including Orthodox women who refuse to move from the Kosel, as well as Conservative and Reform”, adding she is president of an Orthodox congregation in downtown Jerusalem. There are also what Feinstein calls “unaffiliated” and today there are between 100-200 women monthly, thanking police for since they began arresting them for wearing a tallis, more women have been coming. She has been active in her cause she explains for 27 years.

Feinstein concludes that praying at the Kosel is the organization’s expressed purpose as stated in its charter and she and many others plan to do just that, unwilling to accept any compromise that moves them from the Kosel. She and her allies in O-WoW have no intentions of moving to the new egalitarian area for she explains for her, it is about praying as she wishes at the Kosel and not a substitute venue.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)