Tanya Rosenblit
It was supposed to be just another regular Friday morning for Tanya Rosenblit. Tanya had to get from her hometown Ashdod to Jerusalem for a meeting there. On the way, Rosenblit experienced one of the most intimidating stories of religious coercion I’ve seen lately: She was told by a Haredi man to get to the back of the bus, or nobody was going to go anywhere.
And what do you think Rosenblit did? That’s right – she stayed put. And she took pictures of the whole ordeal and later wrote about it on Facebook. Here’s her story, which I publish a part of with her permission:
A bus ride to Jerusalem taking the wrong turn…
I lived in Israel all my life. I was brought up in a free country and I was taught the value of freedom as a basic right that could never be undermined by anyone. All my life, during my teens, my military service, my university years and then after I always felt as equal among my peers. I was always proud to be a woman and never felt deprived or weakened by men, until today.I had an appointment in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem and looked for easy transportation on a Friday morning. After checking the official Egged site, which is the leading bus company in Israel, I decided to take line 451 from Ashdod (my hometown) to Jerusalem. I chose this line because it stopped a mere five minute walk from my scheduled appointment.The driver looked at the station where I was standing and didn’t stop. I had to signal him by raising my hand for him to stop. When I entered the bus he looked surprised. He explained that the only ones who go on the bus are Orthodox Jews. I sat behind him in the first row and asked for him to tell me when we get to my station.
At the next stop, Orthodox Jews started mounting the bus. At first, they just stared at me, but said nothing and moved on to sit somewhere in the bus behind us. Only one passenger decided that he preferred standing on the stairs near the driver, although there was plenty of space. I didn’t mind that, and focused on the music in my ears. But then, another one entered the bus, but instead of entering, he prevented the driver from closing the door. He looked at me with despise, and when I took off the earphones, I heard him call me “Shikse”, which means “whore” in Yiddish. He demanded I sit in the back of the bus, because Jewish men couldn’t sit behind women (!!!). I refused.
The driver tried to talk to him, explained that he was late, but the “penguin” wouldn’t budge. Another passenger, also religious and orthodox asked the driver to be refunded because he was gonna miss his meeting. He also said that he didn’t mind what was going on, he just wanted to get to where he was going and that the fact that they decided to stop the bus is a good reason for the driver to give him his money back. For company policy, he didn’t, but that’s a different story.
The driver understood he was not going to move anytime soon, so he called the police. Until that moment, no one tried to talk to me. The only comment I heard was from the initiator of this whole mess ordering me to sit in the back of the bus as a sign of respect. In the meantime, a crowd started forming outside the bus, as a result of his cries. I was starting to get scared, to tell you the truth. There were like 20 of them, all wearing black. Most of them were just curious, but they were definitely on his side.
After a while, the police came. It was one officer who first talked to the driver. The driver explained to him that he didn’t tell me anything and that they wouldn’t budge. Then, the officer had a long conversation with the person who started this whole mess. It seemed quite friendly, and in the end, the policeman came to me and asked me if I was willing to respect them and sit in the back of the bus. I answered that I respected them enough by wearing modest cloths, because I knew I was going to an Orthodox neighborhood, but I wouldn’t be humiliated by those who can’t even respect their own mothers and wives.
The officer stepped down and so did the leader of the little protest that was going on. He stayed in Ashdod, while the rest of the Orthodox Jews, including those who got on the bus later on boarded the bus and quietly went to sit behind me. The person who chose to stand on the stairs at the beginning remained on the stairs sitting and praying throughout the entire bus ride, because he wouldn’t sit behind a woman!!!
The entire delay took about half an hour, but we managed to arrive on time. In the neighborhood, I met some very pleasant people who were very happy and eager to help me when I asked for directions, men and women, Orthodox and religious. When I later decided to take a walk around the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, I was again treated as an equal, as a secular woman, with the utmost respect and sympathy, by men and women of all streams.
The reason I am posting this story is not to declare the Orthodox Jews as pure evil and the oppressors of human rights and liberties. I want to point out that this is a social and educational problem. There are a lot of lovely things about religion, but forcing people to choose religion is wrong. It is wrong to use religion as an excuse to eliminate people’s basic rights: the right for freedom and the right for dignity.
Waiting for Rosenblit to move to the back, preventing driver from moving (photo: Tanya Rosenblit)
A crowd gathers outside (Photo: Tanya Rosenblit)
He won't sit behind a woman (photo: Tanya Rosenblit)
Policeman speaks to "head" of protest (photo: Tanya Rosenblit)
Most passengers just didn't care (photo :Tanya Rosenblit)
And, of course, it filled me with anger. That the policeman actually asked her to move. And that this is what Israel is turning in to. It’s a slow process. But it’s steady.
Tanya wishes to make sure that her cry is not against the ultra-Orthodox as a whole and does not wish to turn this into a religious war of any kind. As she told me today: “The extremists are the problem. In Israel 2011 we are waging a battle for individual rights. We should fight for freedom and tolerance for all.”
I agree with Tanya that these are extremists. But I also believe their numbers are on the rise, and that the current political system has shown no interest whatsoever in changing the tide.
P.S. I just have to add that as much as I don’t like the word “shikse”, I don’t particularly approve of the term “penguin” as well. I can only presume it was written when emotions ran high.
December 19, 2011
8:20 am
The Israeli government has no problem calling even the slightest criticism of their policies racist and anti-semitic but consciously ignore their own racism and misogyny within their borders and in the occupied territories.
It might not be an official government policy to discriminate against women in this manner but they aren’t doing anything about it either. They’re too busy accusing the rest of the world of being bigots and racists.
December 19, 2011
9:03 am
@ Dan – “On the one hand, these buses start and go to religious neighborhoods and not the central bus station. ”
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That’s precisely one of the biggest problems with Egged. The haredim get picked up where they live, we the ordinary run-of-mill commuters have to schlep to and disembark at a central bus station (that is anything but central), which, in Jerusalem’s case, adds a good 20 mins to the journey in each direction. The Haredim have no security check, do they. Why? They have a choice of bus stops at each end they can embark and disembark at whereas we have to be treated like cattle. Why?
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We are constantly told that those who demand separation between the sexes on public transport are just a fraction of the population. We are told the same with reference to the price taggers and the kind of openly racist settler found in Hebron, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan. But they are in the driving seat, not Mr and Ms Average. Why?
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“I don’t think Egged would make a bus line for seculars in these instances (which I would take) as there are not enough patrons.”
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There are not enough patrons because they are not offered the same conditions. Seculars pay more for the journey and have none of the advantages I listed above. I can assure you that if a bus to Jerusalem left from a neighborhood like mine, more people would leave their cars at home and avail themselves of public transport.
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Re the lady in question, activist or not, might she have a) lived nearer to the Ashdod haredi neighborhood from which she took the bus than the city’s central bus station? Or b) worked out that that bus would take her directly to the place she needed to be, i.e. closer to a haredi area than Jerusalem’s congested, time-consuming, impossibly user-unfriendly bus station, which would have obliged her to find the right bus stop and then wait for a city bus that when it did finally arrive, meandered through many traffic-choked neighborhoods before reaching the destination that the mehadrin line goes straight to?
December 19, 2011
9:27 am
SH – you now have me wondering what would happen if an Arab tried to ride one of those busses.
December 19, 2011
9:34 am
I’ve been reading these comments from end to beginning and I see that there’s confusion about the word shiksa. The Yiddish word shiksa and its male form sheigetz (plural shkotsim) comes from the Hebrew word שקץ – pronounced sheketz. It literally means an abomination or an unclean animal. Definitely not a compliment if it’s aimed at you.
December 19, 2011
9:38 am
Aristeides, I have already wondered about that but never aloud because it doesn’t do to put ideas into peoples’ heads! A further twist to that would be a scenario involving the latest form of home-grown terrorist (swiftly downgraded by our PM to anarchist).
December 19, 2011
9:45 am
Hah, Aristeides, we’re not the only ones to have thought of it. For Hebrew speakers only so far, but http://news.walla.co.il/?w=%2F2952%2F1886632
December 19, 2011
11:16 am
Subversion R Us!
December 19, 2011
1:25 pm
@Dan: No one male or female wants to walk into someone else’s elbow.
Activist or not, the normal solution to an elbow in the aisle, no matter who or what seat on the bus, is to ask a person to move it out of the way, NOT to demand that they change seats.
Had this man simply calmly and repeatedly complained about her elbow being in the aisle, then there would have been no story.
December 19, 2011
8:28 pm
anyone who uses religion to hurt another person is only doing so to be self serving because if God didn’t want another group to be around he sure as hell would not need anyone’s help to get rid of them he is GOD after all. No matter the person if they felt the pain they caused there would be alot less of it.
December 19, 2011
9:53 pm
It is my understanding that the police are trained to find the easiest solution to a problem which may be why he asked her to move. But the fact that he did nothing further tells me that he is in agreement with her feelings or else he could have tried to force her to move or arrest her or at least detain her. I think he also had to at least ask to be able to deal with the guy making all of the trouble. The whole thing makes me sick. To call her such a nasty name when he was supposed to be doing God’s work just blows my mind. I have to wonder if he had asked her nicely and explained the situation and offered to sit next to her in the back what would have happened.
December 19, 2011
11:17 pm
If a man has a religious belief that he shouldn’t sit behind women on buses then that’s eccentric to me, but I don’t have a right to tell him not to have those beliefs.
But there is a difference between having those beliefs and changing one’s own behaviour to accomodate them (By, say, not getting the bus, or avoiding or leaving buses with female passengers), and expecting other people to accomodate those beliefs. One shows religious devotion, the other an attitude of entitlement and arrogance.
If you expect other people to do the work in order for you to observe a religious custom then it makes it pretty meaningless, really. Only when you put time and effort into a gesture does it become an act of religious humility or self sacrifice.
December 19, 2011
11:33 pm
I applaud Tanya for sticking to her rights.
Someone should remind those Orthodox parasites:
It was not their prayers that created the State of Israel, it was secular Zionists who fought and built a Jewish state while the Orthodox preached anti-Zionism and sat on their fat asses waiting for the Messaiah.
It was not their prayers that made it possible for any Jews to have survived Europe during and after WWII. It was secular Jews, with jobs, influence and empathy that helped the desolate while the Orthodox sat on their fat asses studying.
It is only out of a misguided sense of guilt that secular Jews tolerate the presence of the Orthodox in Israeli politics. Since the Orthodox do not participate in the protection of Israel they should not be afforded any voice or vote. Let them live in peace in their inbred world and hopefully die out or assimilate with real Jews.
Someone should also remind the men in black their drag isn’t religious, it’s a fashion statement. No, Moses and the Israelites didn’t leave wearing black coats and fur hats. The Orthodox drag is right out of 18th Century Poland. Perhaps they’d be more comfortable there and I personally encourage them to go. Then see who gets to ride in the back of the bus.
I resent any dime spent on supporting the Orthodox hanging around discussing Talmud or other nonsense instead of working. Name me a single Orthodox Jew who has contributed anything to mankind in the last 500 years and I’ll name you 10 non-religious Jews who were greater – from Einstein to Marx to Salk to pretty much any Jew anyone has ever heard of. (And prior to 500 it’s pretty slim pickin’s as well)
And finally – the most offensive offense of the Orthodox is their rabid, Nazi like obsession of defining “who is as Jew.” If you sound like HItler and Goering, you’re probably on the wrong side of the argument.
December 20, 2011
12:15 am
@Michael Jones, I am one of the first ones to condemn what happened to Tanya Rosenblit, but your post is just the opposite side of the coin….Congratulations!!!!
December 20, 2011
5:53 am
The bottom line is “some assholes are just assholes”-regardless of what or who they are. My grandmother went to America as a refugee and when catching a bus was spat on by a black American- do I know generalise -No- or that perhaps I would say that all Arabs are terrorists -again a small minority-so perhaps it may have been a more positive way of thinking about the glass half full and not half empty by emphasising those who were pleasant and kind. This would then take away any p;erson’s perception that perhaps this was only done for the sake of propaganda and inflaming any negative ideas.
December 21, 2011
12:20 am
@Michael Jones – “Name me a single Orthodox Jew who has contributed anything to mankind in the last 500 years and I’ll name you 10 non-religious Jews who were greater – from Einstein to Marx to Salk to pretty much any Jew anyone has ever heard of.” Just off the top of my head, Baruch Spinoza? Moses Mendelssohn? Yeshayahu Leibowitz? It’s the “you have ever heard of” that’s the problem at the end of your sentence. I’ll grant you that facebook, twitter, the NYT don’t prattle about them much.
December 21, 2011
1:44 am
@SH: “Just off the top of my head, Baruch Spinoza? Moses Mendelssohn? Yeshayahu Leibowitz?”
They weren’t Orthodox. Go back and read Michael Jones’ comment again.
December 21, 2011
3:26 am
@Jeff, thank you.
@SH – You may want to re-read about Spinoza who died about 100 years before the advent of the movement we now call “the orthodox”. He was secular and unorthodox enough to be excommunicated by… that’s right, Jews for advocating either pantheism or atheism, take your pick. He certainly doesn’t count as Orthodox.
As far as Mendelssohn, you mean the guy credited with inspiring the Reform Jewish movement, right? The guy who, according to the nyt (or so I’d expect), opposed the rabbinate-centric (i.e., orthodox) shackles of the shtetl and advocated secular inclusion and modernism – that guy, right? Sadly for Mos’ his religious practices didn’t even convince his own children to remain religious. His well known genius grandson, Felix, had no Jewish identity at all. still, I’ve “liked” both their pages on facebook.
Leibowitz… I’ve never seen a picture of him in the men in black drag but I may grant you that one because he was a scientist. How he reconciled his day job with his orthodox beliefs, well I that’s the focus of his non-scientific writing. However, I don’t think Liebowitz identified with the kind of Jewish riff-raff that caused the bus incident of the original article.
I think I’ll recast the comment you find problematic – name one orthodox or ultra orthodox, men in black, strimel or stocking wearing Jew in the last 100 years who has contributed anything to mankind in general. I can’t think of one. i can’t find one who is a scientist, a research doctor, an explorer, a general, an artist, a musician, a writer. And if the best you can come up with is the rapper Matesyahu, well, mazel tov. Maybe you can search Google +
December 21, 2011
8:25 am
I was talking about people from deeply religious homes who became in their time and beyond, household names in the countries in which they lived. I deliberately stayed away from music and art but since you asked, please don’t put Matisyahu in my mouth or turn me into an inveterate googler for musical information, please. Take Kurt Weill, Offenbach, Meyerbeer, Halevi as composers from religious families, Chagall, Soutine, Pascin and probably more I can’t think of in the painting department from such a background and in the literary section, at the very least, Bashevis Singer. The fact that Moses Mendelssohn’s German translation of the Pentateuch unwittingly gave birth to reform Judaism and the fad for conversion to Christianity (most if not all his children did) is neither here nor there. He was a renowned in Germany in his day, had some pretty famous musical and architectural offspring and was from a religious background. Spinoza, too, came from a religious family and went where no-one had dared to go before him.
You are using the word orthodox the way some people use the word zionist. I’m not going there. Your contention that religious homes cannot produce genius recognized by the outside world was what I was contesting.
December 21, 2011
8:31 am
Michael, I just saw you reduced your 500 years to 100 and decided they all had to be dressed in black, with streimels. I don’t know if Aumann ever dressed in black, but he’s religious and sure has a long beard. Will that do? He got the Nobel a few years ago for game theory or something.
December 21, 2011
8:33 am
Oy gevalt, and who could forget Shai Agnon?
December 21, 2011
8:48 am
Leibowitz, Michael, scientist and rational thinker as he was, coined the epithet Judeo-nazi.
December 21, 2011
12:35 pm
@Michael Jones:
you wrote: — name one orthodox or ultra orthodox, men in black, strimel or stocking wearing Jew in the last 100 years who has contributed anything to mankind in general. –
Since when do we measure the worth of human beings by their ability to acquire fame, win awards or make headlines?
Most people live out their lives without such recognition – are their lives less valuable? For most of history, women have failed to make headlines in large numbers. Would the world be better without all of us?
December 21, 2011
7:18 pm
There is no halakhic ruling against being seated behind a woman. The issur is about staring at her derriere.I would imagine an Eged bus seat is covered from the rear so her derriere cannot be seen. At any rate the man should be more focused on his religious literature than any lady seated in front.
December 22, 2011
1:32 am
Actually Gideon Levy said today what is really wrong with this whole ruckus and the excesses of righteous indignation it has produced.
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http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/what-s-missing-in-the-battle-against-the-exclusion-of-women-1.402843
December 22, 2011
3:28 am
In my eyes Gideon Levy’s argument amounts to “deligitimzation by dilution” and completely ignores the interconnectivity between the Haredim and the rest of society.
Levy writes: — Oy, how good and how pleasant to find an issue worthy of protest from time to time, the kind that won’t make too many people angry, the kind that almost everyone can identify with … The exclusion of Haredi women really is infuriating, but the exclusion of other injustices from the agenda – the kind that are not as good and pleasant to oppose – is far more infuriating. –
Effectively he is saying: “you are a hypocrite to fight/fund X because you aren’t fighting A-Y and they are just as important or even more”. But the fact is a fight takes focus. If you try to fight everything you end up accomplishing nothing. Additionally the presence of some other more important injustice does not make other injustices less worthy of response.
Levy also misrepresents this as just a Haredi problem and as “safe” because of that. Sadly none of this got attention when Haredi attitudes towards women were perceived as only affecting Haredi women and the rare non-haradi person who went to the “wrong” side of town.
It was only when people realized it could impact core institutions like the army, that the train began to leave the station. And it began to gather steam when certain astute groups began to highlight how Haredi bans on women’s pictures and certain modes of dress were impacting men and women who lived and worked outside of Haredi neighborhoods. Only when the larger society found themselves personally affected did this become a hot issue.
Finally, I’m not clear at all on how he concludes this isn’t an important issue. I don’t mean to minimize problems like racisim – they do deserve our attention, but seriously – women are 50% of the population of all races. How we’re “allowed” to exist in public spaces is very important. As all consensus building requires use of public space, this issue is foundational to any other issue that affects women such as domestic violence or pay inequalities. Can you seriously imagine an effective anti-domestic violence or breast health campaign without pictures of women?
December 22, 2011
7:34 am
@SH – So even if they deny all the doctrine of traditional Judaism, if they came originally from observant homes – they qualify as “Orthodox”?
Utterly ridiculous.
December 22, 2011
8:53 am
@Jeff – I’m supposing you haven’t wilfully misunderstood. The orthodox way of life and education is no less capable of producing genius than other sectors of society, which Michael implied wasn’t the case. (I forgot to mention Jacques Lipschitz, who did a great autobiographical sculpture about the very process you (mis)describe – in that not all who moved away from their parents’ traditional ways ended up denying all doctrine of traditional Judaism.)
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@Beth – I understood Levy to be saying that we are relieved to tear our hair out over the religious issue because it gets us off the hook from some of the other extrapolations we could be making and that, in essence, it is not the haredim who should be reproached for the prominent role they increasingly play in the lives of the majority, but the governments who handed them that role and nourish it. The haredim always managed somehow, you know. Emissaries, philanthropists, that’s how their Yeshivot were built and functioned before the state stepped in and that’s how their bus service could be run. It doesn’t have to be Egged that runs it or us who pay for it. That’s a bookkeeping trick. We should be thinking about what’s been in it for successive governments. Any takers?
December 26, 2011
5:39 pm
Arent women required to participate in the Israeli military?
And their being told to sit in the back of the bus!
December 27, 2011
9:06 am
@Sherry Wood, also know that she is being told to sit in the back of the bus by someone who is not required to participate in the Israeli military because he’s studying the Torah instead. And he’s supported by the taxes of the hardworking Israeli’s who actually did have to serve in the military.
January 4, 2012
11:14 am
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