States. Women's prayer groups Separate Jewish women's prayer groups were a sanctioned custom among German Jews in the Middle Ages. The Kol Bo provides, in the laws for Tisha B'Av: And they recite dirges there for about a quarter of the night, the men in their synagogue and the women in their synagogue. And likewise during the day the men recite dirges by themselves and the women by themselves, until about a third of the day has passed. In Germany, in the 12th and 13th centuries, women's prayer groups were led by female cantors. Rabbi Eliezer of Worms, in his elegy for his wife Dulca, praised her for teaching the other women how to pray and embellishing the prayer with music. The gravestone of Urania of Worms, who died in 1275, contains the inscription "who sang piyyutim for the women with musical voice". In the Nurnberg Memorial Book, one Richenza was inscribed with the title "prayer leader of the women". Orthodox women more recently began holding organized women's tefila (prayer) groups beginning in the 1970s. While all Orthodox legal authorities agree that women are prohibited from forming a minyan (prayer quorum) for the purpose of regular services, women in these groups have read the prayers and study Torah. A number of leaders from all segments of Orthodox Judaism have commented on this issue, but it has had a little, although growing, impact on Haredi and Sephardi Judaism. However, the emergence of this phenomenon has enmeshed Modern Orthodox Judaism in a debate which still continues today. There are three schools of thought on this issue: The most restrictive view, held by a few rabbis, rules that all women's prayer groups are absolutely forbidden by halakha (Jewish law). A more liberal, permissive view maintains that women's prayer groups can be compatible with halakha, but only if they do not carry out a full prayer service (i. e., do not include certain parts of the service known as devarim shebikedusha that require a minyan; for example the recital of Kaddish or reading from the Torah), and only if services are spiritually and sincerely motivated, as is usually the case; they cannot be sanctioned if they are inspired by a desire to rebel against halakha. People in this group include Rabbi Avraham Elkana Shapiro, former British Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, and Rabbi Avi Weiss. This is the generally followed view. A third view argues