Noa Raz, a young woman waiting to board a bus, was recently attacked by a man because her arm bore the imprints of tefillin straps, which Jewish men wrap around their arms during morning prayers. "You're an abomination," the man shouted while kicking her.
The episode occurred on May 11. The man is a member Israel's haredim--ultra-Orthodox Jews--community, whose stringent religious practices, and increasing use of violence, are eroding women's worshipping rights. The incidents, some say, are occurring against the backdrop of widespread religious coercion.In a letter to the Israel Religious Action Center, to which Raz turned to after the attack, the police said no suspects have been apprehended but that the investigation is continuing.In another incident, Israeli police detained Nofat Frankel in November 2009 because she wrapped herself in a prayer shawl--called a tallit--while praying at the Western Wall, the holiest place in Judaism.
Police said the act violated a 2003 High Court decision prohibiting female worshipers at the Wall from donning a tallit or tefillin--a leather box worn during some worship ceremonies--and from reading out loud from the Torah.Such acts, the court said, presented a "threat to public security" because they incited haredim to violence. It the time of her detention, Frankel was worshiping with the Women of the Wall, a multi-denominational Jewish women's prayer group that convenes at the Western Wall at the start of every Jewish month.
