I email the director of this excellent documentary, Yael Katzir (a well-known Israeli filmmaker and college professor):
Dear Yael,
Did anything strike you in the differences between the Women of the Wall (and their defenders) and their opponents?
You interviewed many articulate people who opposed the Women of the Wall and many articulate people who supported them.
What struck you as the major differences between these two groups of people? Was one group more friendly to you? Was one group more suspicious? Was one group more uptight? I’m curious.
She replies:
Dear Luke,
A very good question. In fact the women of the wall were a little bit suspicious of my true interest in their cause at the beginning but as I showed perseverance and seriousness and also involved them in the process of editing something that I do in all my documentaries we became true friends although I am not an observant jew. The opponents to the women of the wall were harder to interview. On the surface they tried to be or rather to sound "Liberal" "Tolerant" but in fact they were not. they are threatened by this group and by any thing that might bring a change in the male predominance of the family and society.
I was deeply impressed by the fact that their knowledge of the Jewish scripture is limited to a small number of cliches. (I mean both the Rabbi of the Kotel and Rabbi Nisim Zeev)
The major difference between the two groups is that the Woman of the Wall accept the fact that there are Jews who wish to practice in another way and the Ultra Orthodox believe that there is only one way=their way.
Thank you for preparing me so well for the Q&A on Thursday screening.Warmly, Yael
