The View from the HudsonYou Want Me to Sit Where?

As I ranted about in my last blog, the Jewish world is experiencing friction between moderates and fundamentalist, just as many communities and cultures are. In Israel, with its parliamentary syste...

As I ranted about in my last blog, the Jewish world is experiencing friction between moderates and fundamentalist, just as many communities and cultures are. In Israel, with its parliamentary system, the ultra-religious often get to have influence way out of proportion to their numbers.

So now that “Haredi” men are insisting that women sit in the back of the bus — literally — in certain neighborhoods, average Israelis are getting angry.

It’s a potentially dangerous problem, that I don’t wish to make light of at all. But I was delighted with the message below, which was shared online by a cousin of mine. Roughly translated, it says, “Women Excluded: I didn’t hear you — you want me to sit where?”

In spite of their undue influence, the ultra religous would do well to remember that the rest of the population, including women, have all received weapons training as part of the military service.

Again, it feels like I am having a laugh. But if they don’t do something soon, there really is the potential for the “problem” in Israeli society will soon have nothing to do with Arabs or Palestinians, but within their own numbers. The next war really could be a civil war.

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