"There will be no gender separation by physical means": The Tel Aviv District Court accepted the Tel Aviv municipality's arguments, and ruled that no segregated prayers will be held on Dizengoff Street during Yom Kippur. Justice Hadas Ovadia rejected the petition of the "Freedom and Human Dignity in Israel" forum and ruled that there will be no gender segregation during Kol Nidre prayers and street lockdowns.
For several years now, the closing prayer held by the "Jewish Head" organization on Dizengoff Street at the end of Yom Kippur has become a household name, but this year, against the backdrop of the struggles against religion in the city, the Tel Aviv municipality refused to allow the event to be held separately.
The ruling stated: "I do not really accelerate the petitioners' argument that the municipality's action and the solutions implemented by it to authorize the holding of Yom Kippur prayers in an open space with gender segregation, which was held without a permit to hold an event in the public space and without the municipality being able to implement the procedure in every matter, including the prohibition against gender separation by physical means, is a norm, an action that constitutes a new prohibition, taken without authority, in an arbitrary manner that is extremely unreasonable, as the petitioners claim."
"What was is not what will be": Women march in Bnei Brak against the phenomenon of exclusion // Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
The judge also noted in her ruling that she did not believe that the petitioners were able to "show that the mitzvah of prayer will be harmed if the petitioners do not pray in the manner requested by them while separating in the public sphere on the gender basis that constitutes prohibited discrimination in Dizengoff Square, which is not one of the Jewish holy places."
The judge added that "the worshippers are certainly not an obstacle and our prayers are not an obstacle even in the eyes of the municipality, and it is not nice to argue this especially on days when we also return and ask for peace, favor and blessing."
Freedom and Human Dignity in Israel
Attorney Tzafnat Nordman petitioned on behalf of three Tel Aviv residents and the organization of the "Freedom and Human Dignity in Israel" forum, complaining that the municipality does not have the authority to prohibit the event from being held in segregation and that this is a violation of equality. The court has now rejected her petition and ruled that there will be no separate prayers.
It should be recalled that the petition asked the court to declare the decision null and void or cancel it, because, according to the petitioners, it is illegal. "The decision marks a new low in the annals of the respondent, in the annals of the state," it said. "Since the rule of the British Mandate and the disturbances in the Jewish community, no prohibition on Jewish prayer accessories, on a partition has been heard in the Land of Israel – until now."
According to the petitioners, in recent years prayers have been held on Dizengoff Street, using a partition, and so far the municipality has not thought of banning the phenomenon.
Last week, Israel Hayom reported that the Tel Aviv municipality prohibited the organization of a Jewish head from holding segregated prayers on Dizengoff Street, as has been the practice in recent years at the beginning and end of Yom Kippur. Following this announcement, the organization announced that it would not hold an event without separation. A Jewish leader approached Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and asked what they should do, and the rabbi said that they should hold the prayer even if there was no separation, but the organization had not yet made a final decision on what they would do.
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