Reform activist questioned in tallit incident

Israeli police questioned a prominent Reform movement activist in connection with the wearing of prayer shawls by women at the Western Wall.

Anat Hoffman, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center, said she was fingerprinted Tuesday and that her case was being referred to the attorney general for prosecution.

Hoffman was brought in for her involvement in Women of the Wall, an activist group that presses for rights for women at Judaism’s holiest site.

“I think it was a meeting of intimidation,” Hoffman told JTA.

The interrogation follows the November arrest of Nofrat Frenkel, an Israeli medical student and Women of the Wall member who was detained after donning a tallit at the site.

According to the Forward, an Israeli police spokesman said he did not know of Hoffman’s interrogation and declined further comment.

In an interview Thursday at her Jerusalem office, Hoffman showed her finger, still covered in black ink.

“The stains that are still on my fingers are actually a stain on the State of Israel,” she said.