(JTA) – Members and supporters of the Women of the Wall organization were subjected to body searches at the entrance to the Western Wall Plaza. The women also were disturbed Nov. 30 during their monthly prayer service marking the start of the new Jewish month by haredi Orthodox women at the site who loudly blew whistles. During the searches, aimed at preventing the smuggling of Torah scrolls to the women’s section, some women were ordered to remove their coats and scarves and at least one woman was asked to take off her outer garments during a private search, Haaretz reported. The increase in security was ordered by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, run by the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch. The foundation determines the customs at the Western Wall, which are strictly Orthodox. Women of the Wall has been banned from bringing Torah scrolls into the women’s section since its inception 25 years ago.

Women of the Wall, as well as the non-Orthodox Jewish movements, have called for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. An agreement negotiated by the Reform and Conservative movements, the Women of the Wall, the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government, and approved by the Cabinet, called for the egalitarian section of the wall near Robinson’s Arch to be expanded and placed under the authority of a pluralist committee. The plan called for solidifying haredi Orthodox control over the site’s traditional Orthodox section.

Earlier this month, leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements in the United States and Israel carried at least 12 Torah scrolls into the women’s section of the Western Wall plaza for use during the Women of the Wall’s monthly prayer service as part of a protest march against current restrictions on egalitarian worship at the site.