Women For the Wall (W4W), a grassroots organization of traditional women dedicated to preserving the sanctity of the Western Wall, has issued a challenge to the most recent campaign launched on Jerusalem city buses by the ultra-liberal group Women of the Wall (WOW).

Leah Aharoni, co-founder of W4W, repudiated the renewed attempts “to stir up conflict over the most sensitive and holiest site to the Jewish People. Women of the Wall know that they are free to celebrate bat mitzvot at the Ezrat Israel section of the Kotel, designated for egalitarian prayer. Instead, they are trying to create a public controversy to impose their viewpoints on the overwhelming majority of Kotel visitors, who are interested in preserving the centuries-old tradition at the site.”

Women are free to pray as they choose at the Ezrat Israel egalitarian section of the Wall. Aharoni noted that “WOW are not satisfied with a compromise. Now they are trying to force change at the main Kotel Plaza.” Aharoni claimed that no one goes there, that they have “voted with their feet.”

Aharoni also called on Jerusalem’s charedi population to refrain from defacing the WOW-sponsored signs on buses. “We find the campaign offensive; still we call on everyone to respect the freedom of speech that each citizen enjoys in Israel.” She added her hopes that the American backers of this campaign would realize “that in a time when so many crucial issues face Israel, we should seek ways to promote Jewish unity instead of division. Respectful and fruitful conversation is possible.”

W4W is dedicated to ensuring that the Western Wall can be a place for all Jews to come and pray with respect and dignity. It believes that only by preserving the centuries-old Jewish practice at the Wall can it be a place where all Jews can be welcome.