Charedim sabotage progressive Western Wall barmitzvah, tearing up prayer books

Dozens of strictly-Orthodox protesters have disrupted a barmitzvah at the egalitarian plaza of the Western Wall, shouting over the service, calling the worshipers “Nazis,” “Christians” and “animals,” blowing whistles and ripping up prayer books, according to eyewitnesses.

In one case, a young strictly-Orthodox man was filmed ripping a page out of a prayer book, or siddur, and then wiping his nose with it while smirking.

“It was all really, really ugly,” said Laura Ben-David, who was hired by the family to photograph the barmitzvah.

“How can a nation of Jews allow a reality in which people fear for their security when they are just trying to pray in their own way in a plaza that was specifically designated for this type of prayer?” wrote the Masorti Movement, Israel’s equivalent to the American Conservative movement, in a tweet.

Rabbi Arie Hasit, who officiated the ceremony, said he was “broken” by the ordeal after the protesters called the bar mitzvah boy “a Christian… a Nazi and more.”

“This was an American boy who wanted to celebrate reaching the age of mitzvot, a boy who could have forgotten any connection with the Jewish people and the land of Israel but chose to go up to the Torah in Israel, in front of his parents, his grandfather and grandmother, and some family,” Hasit wrote in a public Facebook post.

The egalitarian section, sometimes known as the “Israel section,” the “family section” or, inaccurately, the “Reform section,” is located on the southern part of the Western Wall, separate from the main plaza, which is segregated by gender. It is meant to be a prayer space for use by more progressive streams of Judaism.

According to Ben-David, a handful of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, boys were already milling around Thursday at the egalitarian section when the family arrived.

“It was strange. We thought, ‘What are they doing here?’” Ben-David said.

• Published courtesy of our partners Times of Israel