Women of the Wall

When Faye Lederman traveled to Jerusalem from New York in 1996, she sought out a women's prayer group. She wanted to feel at home in her homeland. She returned with a film that takes a look at the 10-year effort of women to win the legal right to pray as a group at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. This timely documentary provides insight into their struggle and what it means to be a progressive religious Jew in Israel. Despite the successful efforts of women to participate in Jewish religious life in many countries throughout the world, it is still forbidden for women to open the Torah or sing out loud at the holiest of Jewish sites, the Western Wall. Lederman makes a compelling case for looking at this issue both in terms of women's rights and in the context of religious pluralism and civil rights in Israel.