Tel-Chai Nation

I don't know if this was in response to any recent report the Jerusalem Post published, but on November 12, they published a letter by a Torontonian who bore witness to continued bus segregation in favor of extremist Haredis in Beit Shemesh:

Sir, – I was visiting Israel when, on November 4 at 6:15 p.m., I took bus No. 497 from Beit Shemesh. I was shocked to discover that the bus was segregated and that I was expected to use the back door and sit in the back.

Clearly this practice continues despite being illegal.

I fail to understand the difference between the groups that impose this in the name of God, and extremists from other religions who marginalize women.

Little good can come of this in the long run.

How can these men, who have no exposure to women, be good husbands and fathers? Do they really have so little willpower that they are unable to resist even the sight of a woman? Government and religious leaders should work toward educating these people rather than catering to the lunatic fringe.

I'm with her on that 100 percent. Another reader chimed in 2 days after:

Sir, – I feel for reader Kim Edelstein, who didn’t enjoy being on a segregated bus (“Lunatic fringe,” Letters, November 13).

Where I live, the buses are not segregated, and I actually sat next to a woman on my bus during a recent morning. That’s where there was a vacant seat.

These days, as a retired person, I prefer to find a seat wherever I can instead of trying to keep my balance while standing. I recognize that this is a theological problem for some people, but we are all free to sit or not to sit where we see a vacant seat, or to get up and stand if we don’t like the company.

If there is a problem of hypothetical sexual attraction, it can happen between two males, too, or two females, so maybe no one should sit next to anyone at all.

Maybe. For now, the bus company that allowed this must answer, and if the Haredis really, truly must have that kind of transportation, then they should get their own private bus company.

Labels: Canada, haredi corruption, Israel, Jerusalem, Judaism, misogyny, Moonbattery