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Praying at the Kotel

Object number
2021.3

Donor
M. Jensen.

Object Information

This is an image of a woman, Mie Jensen, praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the most holy site for many Jewish people around the world. She is wearing a Kippah. Traditionally the Kippah is worn by men and boys in Orthodox communities, but in Liberal and Reform communities, women and girls may choose to wear the Kippah. Jewish people wear the Kippah as a sign of respect to G-d. Kippot (plural) can have all sorts of different designs on them to signal something about the person’s personality or identity, for example someone’s favourite football team! In this case, this Kippah has rainbow colours on it which represents this woman’s LGBTQ+ identity.

In an interview, Mie points out that it is often difficult to be able to represent both sides of oneself, because “you can’t be gay and religious in both”. In her opinion, many people would be confronted by having too many doubts and fears about their own identity if they try to live in both spaces. However, she is certain that the LGBTQ+ community “have a lot more self acceptance and better mental health, and they report having a much healthier sexual and religious identity on top of this” if they allow both sides of their identities. For this reason, she calls on others not to choose sides, and would like to draw attention to the fact that sexual identity can be well matched with religious identity.

Hear from the donor

What is happening in your image?

It’s me praying at the Kotel in 2019 while wearing a rainbow kippah. It was taken by my mum. The Kotel was busy as always, but I managed to find a spot where I didn’t stand right next to other people. It was actually on that trip that I decided to do a PhD on LBQ Jewish women’s lived experiences and practices.

Why is the image important to you?

Wearing the kippah at the Kotel is a very beautiful symbol to me, because you have the symbol of wanting to create a very egalitarian cultural legacy on the ancient walls of the temple, and in many ways that’s like a beacon of hope and determination and commitment. And for me the kippah is a very important Jewish symbol, because it was originally for men and then women started adopting it during second-wave feminism, and then the rainbow kippah to many can be seen as making a political statement and it’s a way to reclaim and reassert spiritual agency. . It’s a way to feel connected to Judaism, as well creating this more egalitarian cultural legacy.

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