Tikkun Olam

My loyal readers know how I feel about Judaism (love it), and how I feel about the Haredi* distortion of Judaism with their sexist attitudes (hate it).  I have written often (a sampling being here , here , and in my previous post from yesterday) about the radicalization of halacha (Jewish law), and the terrible situations on some Israeli buses, with the verbal, emotional and sometimes even physical abuse of women who dare not to sit "in their place" at the back of the bus.  Shades of anti Black-American segregation from the sixties... I had also complained (that's what an armchair activist does, complain) that I had not heard any voices speaking up from the Orthodox, or better--Ultra-Orthodox sector about these abuses.  Had not heard, until now (hat tip to Primum Non Nocere for alerting us to this article). Rav Haim Amsalem , a Haredi (or Chareidi, if you will) Rabbi, has now expressed his view of the fanatic, perverted discrimination against women that is going on in...

I am an Orthodox Jew, and I am opposed to public buses being gender-segregated, either in Israel or here in the States.  Note, I said public buses.  The Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) community, in my opinion, can hire private buses wherever they be, be it Bnei Brak in Israel or Borough Park in New York, and enforce their own rules however they like.  But not on public buses with city franchises. Apparently, this had been going on for quite a while on a route from Borough Park to Williamsburg , with officials looking the other way. Not anymore: Faced with the choice of losing its franchise with the city or allowing women riders to sit where they please, a Brooklyn bus line that is authorized and monitored by New York’s Department of Transportation says it won’t engage in gender segregation. But it appears that in the company’s nearly four decades plying the streets between Borough Park and Williamsburg, government officials may have long known about the company’s impr...

I have written previously about Haredi segregated buses , and the abuse that is sometimes perpetrated against women who inadvertently sit in the front of the bus, instead of the rear where they belong, according to the Haredi view of the halacha (Jewish law) of modesty.  Some Haredi men will go so far as to verbally and emotionally abuse a woman who has sat in the front of the bus, if she refuses to move to the back. Apparently some women are fighting back.  They have petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to ban gender-segregation on public buses.  Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz is supposed to issue the government's verdict.  Let's hope he uses his שכל , and shows by his decision that Israel values mitzvot bein adam le-havero more than the humra-of-the-week .