Comic Sarah Silverman's sister has been detained in Israel. The Associated Press reported that Iraeli police detained 10 women as they tried to pray at a Jerusalem holy site. Amongst those detained was Susan Silverman, Sarah Silverman's sister who is a Jerusalem rabbi from the "liberal Reform stream of Judaism" reported the AP. She was detained a long with her daughter.
Another woman who was detained, Anat Hoffman said to the AP that the women were stopped because they were wearing religious clothes in an area reserved for men only at the Western Wall.
The women who were detained belong to the group, Women of the Wall, which is a liberal group who go to the Western Wall each month to worship and conduct certain rituals that are traditionally reserved for men.
"Susan Silverman, who immigrated to Israel from Boston, said police escorted the group, including her 17-year-old daughter, to a station after they refused to remove prayer shawls," reported Reuters.
Sarah Silverman wrote on her Twitter page "SO proud of my amazing sister @rabbisusan & niece@purplelettuce95 for their ballsout civil disobedience. Ur the tits! #womenofthewall".
The detention occurred on Monday after around 300 people gathered at a prayer service at the Western Wall where they were to protest Orthodox control of the prayer site.
The Independent reported that only a small section of the site is reserved for women. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would consider new ways of making the site more equitable for women and men.
Silverman's niece responded with a message that read: "@SarahKSilverman hey auntie, want a copy of my mugshot?"
The Independent reported that police confirmed that the women that were detained were because they were wearing a "male style" tallitot.
"It's unacceptable that the police are stopping women from wearing tallitot, it's like Iran. I can't believe they are stopping people from praying one way or another," Ilon Bar-Tov, a paratrooper told the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Micky Rosenfeld, who is a spokesman for national police, said to Reuters that the group of women detained acted "against regulations set by the High Court."
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