Bar Mitzvah but NO BAT MITZVAH at the Western Wall

Every week, dozens of bar mitzvah boys from Israel and the Diaspora celebrate their rite of passage at the Kotel, also known as the Western Wall, which, after the Temple Mount, is Judaism’s holiest site.  Many … families, especially from the more liberal streams of Judaism, are therefore surprised to learn that Israel forbids women and girls from doing the equivalent — celebrating a bat mitzvah at the Kotel,   According to Israeli law, “No religious ceremony shall be in held in the women’s section of the Western Wall.” Women are forbidden to read from the Torah, to wear prayer shawls or to blow the shofar there.  (From the Jewish Journal)

View of Western Wall with Temple Mount and Dome of the Rock..
Bar Mitzvahs are taking place under each umbrella.

Two days each week it is possible for a properly prepared Jewish boy around his 13^th birthday to celebrate his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall at the foot of the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem.    This sacred place for Jews is divided into two areas by a 6-7-foot barrier with the larger portion being for men to worship, approach and touch the wall and the smaller, southern portion the area to which the women are relegated. 

This is the Women's section of the wall.  I did not want to get too close to photograph women praying
but you can see them in the distance touching and praying.  Some will stay there for hours.

A few years ago, we visited the Western Wall and we each made prayers on tiny pieces of paper and stuck them in the wall on our respective sides along with hundreds of others.  For me this visit was different.  Not only did the dividing wall seem taller but this time there was something special to miss on the other side.   So I joined many, many women who stood on either a long low bench or white plastic chairs to look over the wall and watch the many, many bar mitzvahs which were occurring on this day.   Moms, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and onlookers like myself stood to peer over the wall and watch.   When each ceremony was completed the families on either side of the barrier joined together to sing songs and throw the tradition of candy at the bar mitzvah boy.   When they were finished the candy was swept away, the table cleared and a new candidate arrived, with rented Torah, rabbi, and accompanying male relatives of all ages.   And the ceremony began with all female friends and relatives hanging over the make shift barrier to watch.  Countless tables lined the barrier so that female relatives and friends could be present at each of the ceremonies.  For me it was quite a disquieting event.  But this was not the first time on this trip, segregation of men and women is the standard practice in just about every place we have been.  At home we are quick to forget that equality (or almost equality!) for women is a very new thing. 

Guess who climbed on a chair and joined the happy throng of Moms and other female relatives.
You can see right where I stood next to the gal (sister?) in the white sweater pictured in the
previous picture.   She is holding a bag of candy which she will soon throw over the wall.  
And this is what we saw............................

This was another bar mitzvah boy from our view over the barrier............

Here a happy family is reunited after the ceremony outside the restricted area.