Women of the Wall (WOW; Hebrew: נשות הכותל, Neshot HaKotel) is a multi-denominational Jewish feminist: "The Women of the Wall believed themselves to be liberal feminists." organization based in Israel whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray at the Western Wall, also called the Kotel, in a fashion that includes singing, reading aloud from the Torah and wearing religious garments (tallit, tefillin and kippah). Pew Research Center has identified Israel as one of the countries that place "high" restrictions on religion, and there have been limits placed on non-Orthodox streams of Judaism. One of those restrictions is that the Rabbi of the Western Wall has enforced gender segregation and limitations on religious garb worn by women. When the "Women of the Wall" hold monthly prayer services for women on Rosh Hodesh, they observe gender segregation so that Orthodox members may fully participate. The group attempted to challenge these rules and establish "female support" for the men's decision, but the Ministry of Justice confirmed that this was not recognized. Their use of religious garb, singing, and reading from a Torah have upset many members of the Orthodox Jewish community, sparking protests and arrests. In May 2013 a judge ruled that a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling prohibiting women from carrying a Torah or wearing prayer shawls had been misinterpreted and that Women of the Wall prayer gatherings at the wall should not be deemed illegal.
In January 2016, the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan to designate a new space at the Kotel that would be available for egalitarian prayer and which would not be controlled by the Rabbinate. Women of the Wall welcomed the decision, but the plan faced opposition from other factions, including some ultra-Orthodox members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition, who threatened to withdraw over the government's plan to create non-Orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall in deference to the Women of the Wall.Netanyahu facing crisis as haredim vow to quit over Western Wall pluralism. The Jerusalem Post, March 7, 2016
In January 2017, the Israeli High Court ruled that if the government of Israel could not find "good cause" to prohibit women reading from the Torah in prayer services at the Kotel within 30 days, women could do so; they also ruled that the Israeli government could no longer argue that the Robinson's Arch area of the plaza is access to the Kotel. The petition for women to read from the Torah at the Kotel had been brought by a group that split off from the Women of the Wall, calling itself the "Original Women of the Wall".
In June 2017, it was announced that the plan approved in January 2016 had been suspended.
According to Ronit Kampf, the group's struggle has been "the most covered women's issue in the history of the Israeli media."
Summary
From the start, Women of the Wall included Orthodox members and opted to claim their service was run according to "Orthodox standards". This was despite the fact that according to orthodox standards, women do not wear tzitzit, tefillin, or read from the Torah.Sztokman, Elana (January 29, 2014). "Tefillingate: Orthodoxy must not reject its most committed members" (Haaretz). Retrieved October 29, 2014. Some Orthodox individuals were offended, including some who call themselves Orthodox feminists.: "A third reason for choosing Orthodox services was out awareness that if we did not adopt Orthodox standards, Orthodox women would not attend our services or, in all likelihood, support our struggle. Non-Orthodox women who have been involved in the Kotel struggle have been most generous in allowing Orthodox practice to prevail, and our services at the Kotel as well as the solidarity services we sponsored elsewhere therefore have been conducted in accordance with Orthodox standards. Despite this many Orthodox women, even those who were active in women's tefillah groups and leaders of Orthodox feminism, remained reticent and ambivalent about our struggle to pray at the Kotel, and Orthodox rabbis, even those who permitted women's tefillah their synagogues, did not support our right to pray in an identical fashion at the Kotel.: "The movement, which is controversial, even among Orthodox feminists, myself included..." Women of the Wall is a multi-denominational group, including Reform, Conservative and Modern Orthodox members.Amid Violence, Women of the Wall Vote Not to Engage Police This Month Haaretz, Oct 12, 2015
Since 1988, the group has faced a legal battle for recognition of their right to pray at the Western Wall. Their presence is deemed offensive by Orthodox worshippers at the site and there have been numerous court proceedings to settle the issue. On the Fast of Esther 1989, Orthodox men, outraged by the women's singing, hurled chairs and verbal insults at the women, which resulted in the deployment of tear gas to quell the violence. In 2010, police arrested two Haredi men at the Western Wall Plaza on suspicion that they threw chairs at a Women of the Wall group that was praying aloud at the site.2010 Human Rights Report: Israel and the occupied territories. U.S. Department of state. This article incorporates public domain material from this source. In 2009, the first woman was arrested for praying with a tallit. The struggle by the Women of the Wall is seen by the Israeli Orthodox religious establishment as an attempt to undermine their influence in an effort to introduce religious pluralism.
Opposition from the Orthodox stems from halachic concerns; this manifests publicly as a general disdain for non-traditional ritual in an area they claim serves as an Orthodox synagogue. Orthodoxy does not permit women to constitute a minyan (prayer quorum) and while the women have not considered themselves as doing so, this has not calmed Orthodox sensibilities.: "Known as "the Women of the Wall," these women, out of deference to the group's Orthodox members, have used traditional liturgical texts and have not considered themselves to be a minyan. Halakhically, at least as understood by Orthodoxy, women cannot constitute or count as members of a prayer quorum. Nonetheless, they have become the target of great opposition and occasional violence from ultra Orthodox Jews. [...] Women of the Wall continue to face opposition from ultra Orthodox Jews who are against women's prayer groups in general.: "The Women of the Wall organization represents a group of observant Jewish women who pray together in a minyan - a religious quorum traditionally reserved for men. This form of collective worship is not acceptable to ultra-Orthodox Jews when practiced by women." Initially, the group did not receive support from Israel's primarily Orthodox religious authorities.: "But, at the kotel, where tradition trumps individual choice, the guidelines have not changed because they are not only a matter of acknowledging the desires of this group, which itself would radically alter Jewish tradition, but because the group lacks the support of any major religious authority. At the same time, acceding to their requests might also mean giving parity to non-Orthodox denominations." Supporters highlighted the fact that only in Israel are Jewish women prohibited from praying according to their custom in a public location: "Supporters of the Women of the Wall note the irony that "only in Israel, and at the site most holy to Jews...are Jewish women prohibited from praying aloud in a group with a Torah." and a 2003 High Court ruling which prevented them from conducting prayer services at the wall: "In 2003, the Women of the Wall, a group of more than 100 Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform women, lost their 14-year legal battle to hold formal women's prayer services at the Western Wall. The High Court ruled that the group could not hold prayer services at the Western Wall and instead would be permitted to hold them at nearby Robinson's Arch." was overturned in 2013.
A plan was approved by the Israeli Cabinet in January 2016 to designate a new space at the Kotel that would be available for egalitarian prayer and which would not be controlled by the Rabbinate. In 2017 the Israeli High Court ruled that if the government of Israel could not find "good cause" to prohibit women reading from the Torah in prayer services at the Kotel within 30 days, women could do so; they also ruled that the Israeli government could no longer argue that the Robinson's Arch area of the plaza is access to the Kotel. The petition for women to read from the Torah at the Kotel had been brought by a group that split off from the Women of the Wall, calling itself the "Original Women of the Wall". However, later that year it was announced that the plan approved in January 2016 to designate a new space at the Kotel that would be available for egalitarian prayer and which would not be controlled by the Rabbinate had been suspended. On February 19, 2026 Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that repairs to the egalitarian section of the Wall, promised by the government a decade ago, must begin. Shortly thereafter, the Knesset gave preliminary approval to a bill that any prayer at the Wall violating rabbinate rules would be viewed as “desecration,” punishable by up to seven years in prison. The move threatens the site’s egalitarian prayer section and could strain the relationship with the Reform Judaism, the largest branch of Judaism in the United States.Julia Frankel, LA Times, February 26, 2026 Israel’s parliament moves toward ban on mixed-gender prayer at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, Feb 26, 2026