From a Partition to a Barrier

Abstract

This article examines gender separation at Jewish holy sites in the State of Israel. From a rare and sporadic phenomenon just a few decades ago, gender serparation at sacred sites has become normative. Segregation is in part directed ‘from above’ by the State of Israel's various religious arms, which fund, organize, and oversee the practice. But it also arises ‘from below’ as a result of the activity of individuals and Haredi groups—both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi—leading to the imposition of increasingly stringent modesty demands on Jewish Israeli women. Gender separation is presented as a religious obligation, and state authorities accept this extreme interpretation as if it represented a monolithic, unchanging religious position.