Israeli lawmaker uses immunity to deliver Torah scroll for women at Western wall
Western Wall administrators and ultra-Orthodox MKs castigated Gilad Kariv, a freshman Labor party lawmaker
Newly-elected Labor party lawmaker Gilad Kariv on Tuesday stirred anger among Israel's ultra-Orthodox community after using his parliamentary immunity to hand over a Torah scroll to a group of women for use during their prayer service at the Western Wall.
The move was immediately condemned by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which administers the site according to traditional Orthodox standards.
“Kariv cynically took advantage of his parliamentary immunity,” the foundation said in a statement.
“With that step, the Knesset [Israel Parliament] member restored the turmoils that were at the Kotel [Western Wall] in the past and which were silenced over the past year due to the efforts to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation to create unity in the Western Wall Plaza in general and on Rosh Hodesh [the first day of the month] in particular.”
Kariv, an ordained Reform rabbi, handed the scroll to members of Women of the Wall, which describes itself as a "multi-denominational Jewish feminist organization based in Israel whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray at the Western Wall."
“The Women of the Wall group caused a provocation and desecrated the sanctity of the site by joining the Knesset member in the upper plaza while provoking” people who were praying there, the foundation added.
Kariv's ultra-Orthodox colleagues also castigated the freshman lawmaker on Tuesday, with the leader of the United Torah Judaism party, MK Moshe Gafni, saying he would file a complaint with the Knesset Ethics committee.
“Gilad Kariv is a well-known brat, always was and always will be,” Gafni said in a statement. “And now he is bringing the Knesset down to the very depths of hell in order to harm the Jewish people all over the world for generations.”
Prominent members of Israel's ultra-Orthodox community have made it a point to shun Kariv, the first Reform Rabbi ever to be elected to the Knesset, labeling his brand Judaism a "dangerous cult."
Responding to the condemnations, Kariv said he was proud to use his status as an Israeli lawmaker to push for equal treatment at holy sites across and vowed to continue to fight against religious hegemony in Israel.
"Together with the Women of the Wall, and with the support of most of the Israeli public and the millions of Jews around the world, I will continue to campaign for the right of all streams and communities in the Jewish people to pray at the Western Wall according to their custom.
“I am proud to use my immunity in order to carry a Torah scroll for the Women of the Wall, and am ashamed that governing authorities in Israel are busy in an attempt to confiscate a Torah and prevent women from praying and reading from the Torah as is their custom,” he added.