Thirteen years ago, on the morning of Rosh Chodesh Adar, I was detained at the Kotel.

I had joined a group choosing to pray with the Women of the Wall in the women’s section. A minyan of us, 10 women, were detained by police.

My “crime” on that February day in 2013 was violating the regulations of holy places and behaving in a way that may have endangered public safety. My punishment was a 30-day ban on visiting the entire Western Wall plaza.

At the time, my arrest was befuddling. All I did was daven, or pray, just as I do every day, as a rabbi serving the largest Conservative synagogue in Canada.

In the years since, I’ve seen police interfere with women’s prayer at the Kotel on a near-monthly basis. And now, something is unfolding that is beyond befuddling — it is outrageous.

The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee has been moving forward a piece of legislation that would criminalize any egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall — punishable by up to seven years in prison — including at the site that has been dedicated to egalitarian services for the past decade. Even as the governing coalition has teetered, the committee has held one........

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