Twenty women attended the first meeting in June and the group has grown to 30, ages 13 to 90 years, including several nonmembers. "We're amazed at how it's mushroomed," Beard said. "This is ...

Women of the Wall, the activist group that holds women’s prayer services each month at the site known as the Kotel, loudly sang festive prayers at a spot far from the wall itself.

Women of the Wall presented the conditions under which the group would move its monthly prayer service to a third, egalitarian section of the Western Wall’s plaza.