From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Teen girls, security guard disrupt Women of the Wall prayer service at Western Wall
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Dozens of teen girls try to disrupt a prayer service by the Women of the Wall group at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
According to a statement by the group, during the service, a member of the holy site’s security personnel also tries to confiscate a Torah scroll from the worshipers.
Women of the Wall, an activist group that advocates for women-led prayer and Torah readings to be allowed at the holy site, holds an all-female prayer service in the women’s section to mark the beginning of each Hebrew month.
Today, which marks the first day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, at least 30 apparently Orthodox teens, who appeared to be accompanied and led by an older woman, gathered around approximately 15 Women of the Wall worshipers and screamed and whistled for the entire duration of the service.
Women of the Wall services are regularly disrupted by protesters.
“When the security guard takes a megaphone to disrupt the Torah reading and attempts to forcibly take the Torah scroll from us, this constitutes a brutal violation and an unprecedented assault on freedom of worship,” the group says in a statement, calling the conduct of security personnel “a green light for continued silencing and violence at the Wall.”
Security guards appeared to try to keep hecklers and worshipers separate. Others prevented a group of religious men from entering the women’s section.
There are over 100 Torah scrolls in the Western Wall compound, but none are located in the women’s section or made available to women (in most Orthodox spaces, women do not read publicly from Torah scrolls or come in contact with them, even though a growing number of communities are beginning to change those practices, especially when they take place during all-female services).
The Western Wall Foundation, which sets the rules for the holy site, bars private worshipers from bringing scrolls into the area.
Established in 1988, Women of the Wall has been fighting the current arrangement. In 2023, it had a minor win when the High Court ruled that security guards at the entrances were not permitted to search visitors for Torah scrolls.
The Times of Israel Community.