Israeli Court Rules for Women Singing at Western Wall

Growing tension between nation's Orthodox Jews and more progressive members

JERUSALEM — In the latest twist in the struggle for the character of the Western Wall, a magistrates' court here ruled on Thursday that five women who had been detained at the Jewish holy site that morning for wearing prayer shawls and singing aloud were not disturbing public order, as the police had asserted.

The women, activists of the Women of the Wall, a feminist and pluralist religious group, were released without conditions; the police had requested that they be barred from attending their group's monthly prayer at the wall for the next three months.