B"H
Israeli dailys and many Jewish blogs have written about it already: A few days ago, a religious woman got beaten up by five haredi men on a public bus in Beit Shemesh.
Years ago, Beit Shemesh used to be a small united town but today, it is basically divided into two parts: The haredi part and the rest. This division alone has led to many disputes in the past, as the non - religious do not want to be ruled by the Haredim.
As it is not too far from Jerusalem, many Haredim moved to Beit Shemesh in order to buy cheaper apartments. When young members of different chassidic groups get married, they move to Beit Shemesh. And thus, groups like Toldot Aharon or Avraham Yitzchak etc. already have their own neighbourhoods.
Not only the haredi society of Jerusalem demands more public buses with separate seating from the state - owned bus company Egged. Now the Haredim in Beit Shemesh start the same discussion.
There are already a few "religious" buses in Israel providing separate seating. For instance, the No. 1 in Bnei Brak, No. 402 from Jerusalem to Bnei Brak and other local Jerusalem buses going to the outskirts of Ramat Shlomo or Ramot. Then ,a few months ago, haredi society wanted to turn bus no. 15 (from Yaffa Road to Har Nof) into a "religious" bus. I heard that there are already signs for separate seating inside the bus but cannot confirm this, as I have not used the no. 15 bus for quite a while.
The latest incident took place in Beit Shemesh and is to be taken seriously. A religious woman was sitting on a bus which is mostly used by the haredi community of Beit Shemesh. She was asked by haredi men to move into the back of the bus, and as she refused, she got beaten by five haredi men.
Is this only the beginning of another threat showing Egged what could happen if the bus company does not react in favour of the Haredim ?
I always thought that haredi men do not touch strange women but in this case, those guys broke the Halachot themselves. And how can five religious guys jump on a woman ? How are they justifying their behaviour ? Not only in front of the religious community but especially before G - d ?
In what times do we live when a group of religious men jumps on women in order to keep up their self invented modesty rules ?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
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i'm curious what actually took place.. not what the news reported.
ReplyDeleteahavat yisrael requires you to seriously doubt any lashon hara you hear about another Jew..
derech eretz requires you to condemn such an act were it to occurr..
the question is, what actually happened?
B"H
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we only have the information from the news, as none of us was physically there.
I think it was at Dov Baer's Blog where I read that more and more women are getting attacked on Jerusalem buses. I have no idea if this is really the case.
Personally I have never seen any kind of threats from haredi men.
In case, a woman is choosing a seat next to a haredi guy, he usually gets up to sit soemwhere else. I have to mention that some people really do it on purpose, upsetting the Haredim on the bus.
But if this incident really took place, it is a disgrace for the men involved.
People always ask if the bus driver did not do anything. The bus company Egged has thousand of haredi customers and does not want a ban put on it. This is the reason why many drivers just keep quiet.