Kotel Empty, Women Of The Wall Mull Hiring Others To Spit On Them

Chances of encountering useful opposition, i.e. an acceptable level of spitting shoving, and shouting for PR purposes, are close to nil.

Jerusalem, April 20 – A group of feminism activists who mark the start of each Jewish month with a public women’s prayer session at one of the faith’s holiest sites in defiance of traditional practice and of regulations governing the site anticipates only scattered opposition to its planned session this Friday amid coronavirus measures that limit the potential number of people in attendance, a prospect that impairs the group’s tactic of generating publicity via images of standing fast against throngs of sometimes-violent opponents. The group will therefore consider paying others to block them, spit at them, yell at them, and otherwise try to prevent them from conducting the planned activity, a spokeswoman disclosed today.

Women of the Wall spokeswoman Kentzra Ott told reporters the organization faces conflicting considerations in its campaign to force the religious establishment to accept its progressive agenda: to maintain its routine of holding a monthly women’s service that includes the donning of t’fillin, religious ornaments that tradition deems the exclusive province of adult male Jews, WoW can do so again this Friday on Rosh Hodesh Iyyar, but restrictions on the gathering of more than nineteen people in one place for such purposes mean that the chief vehicle for achieving the organization’s purpose, i.e. provoking the religious establishment and the vast majority of its supporters into reacting in anger, stands little likelihood of occurring with so few others around. To generate the necessary response the group may have to hire violent demonstrators.

“Our lifeblood, if you will, the one thing that sustains and nourishes our movement, is images of ultra-orthodox Jews spitting at us and behaving like a reactionary mob when we violate longstanding practice in public to make our point,” explained Ott. “The current limits on movement and assembly, not to mention what prudence dictates in terms of public health and personal responsibility, render the chances of encountering useful opposition, by which I mean an acceptable level of spitting shoving, and shouting for our PR purposes, close to nil. If we want to maintain our movement’s momentum here we’re going to have to think outside the box, and maybe hire some folks to do the shoving, spitting, and vile name-calling.”

“In fact we should be able to find people without much difficulty,” she continued. “The pandemic has challenged any number of people and families on the economic front. If this plan moves forward I can see folks jumping at the chance to earn a few shekels and in the process keep this important issue in the forefront of the public mind where it belongs, public health be damned. It doesn’t even have to be actual Haredim – anyone can dress up like them and just start abusing us. I can’t imagine it’s hard to find a large number of people willing to do that.”

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