Jerusalem – Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger criticized on Sunday the segregation of men and women on public transportation, in an interview with Army Radio.
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According to Metzger, the haredi community does not have the right to impose its practices on public bus lines. “If we want there to be segregation, it would be legitimate for us to establish our own transportation company,” he explained.
“We [the ultra-Orthodox] don’t have the authority to force our ideas on others,” he continued. “This state does not belong to the haredi community.”
Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu also addressed on Sunday the recent controversy over the exclusion of women in the public domain, saying that “a fringe group must not be allowed to dismantle what we share in common.”
Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that the public domain must be kept “open and safe” for all Israeli citizens.
“The Israeli society is a complicated mosaic of Jews and Arabs, secular and religious. We have always agreed to coexist in peace, with mutual respect between all sectors of Israeli society,” the prime minister stated.
“Lately we have been witness to attempts to unravel this coexistence. We must seek that which unifies us and bridges the gaps between us, not what splits us up and separates us,” he added.
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz ordered on Sunday an investigation into the incident. The investigation will check whether the bus driver and Egged company violated the Transportation Ministry’s policy against gender segregation.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni praised on Sunday Tania Rosenblit, a young woman who refused last week to submit to the demands of haredi passengers to take a back seat on a bus traveling from Ashdod to Jerusalem.
Livni wrote on her Facebook wall, “Even if she [Tania] didn’t intend to become a symbol for her actions, there’s no doubt that her perseverance represents the need of everyone fearing for Israel’s character to fight and not give up. Tania revealed personal courage and in this decisive moment I call to all to join the struggle over Israel before it is too late.”
It is amazing the recent incitement going on in the leftist self-hating anti-semitic Israeli media. They don’t have what to criticize the right so they are changing gears to encourage a civil war. In a secular society that has rapes and murders on an hourly basis, they have the chutzpah to attack our society.
Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger is 100% right, if we the Charedi part of Israel wishes to have seperate seating than we should have our own buses and let the Olam decide which company to use.
I guess we’re in golus even in eretz yisroel until moshiach comes, and we have to be careful not to be megarer those in power.
Well said Rabbi! We traditionally oppose the State of Israel and we will maintain it until the coming of Mashiach.
Israel doesn’t belong to the Chareidim but Rabbi Metzger belongs to Israel !
The Satmar Rebbi was right: it’s impossible to work along with the secular community and remain unaffected …
Dear Rabbi: This state doesn’t belong to Orthodox at all, you’re a minority if you like it or not, and its absolutely not a pride for us Orthodox to identify ourselves as zionists/pro Israel
He’s right. We cannot and should not impose our views on the secular population (btw the vast majority of Charedim think the same, I should know as I ride on these buses daily), but for some reason I’m seeing his name much to often often in the news lately. Is the’re any reason for this?
Boy is he wrong the state belongs to that contribute the most to its security & economic well being and that’s the chareidim.
Mr Metzger finally u guys are saying the truth the so called state of Israel has no connection to authentic judaism and u personally not the chief rabbi of kllal Yisroel but rather the official matir asurim of the assimilated
Not only doesn’t the State of Israel have anything toi do with Chareidim ,It has nothing to do with Yidishkeit bechlal actually it opposes Yidishkeit
Complete agreement with Rabbi Yona Metzger. But he should have added that those hypocrites who oppose the State of Israel have no right to accept funds or handouts from the State, and shouldn’t cry poverty when funding to their modos is cut.
Rely to #17
We kept our religion for thousands of years without veering off
It is the Zionists and the people who supported them who veered off .
We are right because all geonim (real rabanim) said so
Except a handful who supported religious Zionism ,
It’s just quite funny how the zionists are falling off the cliff into oblivion and civil war And still think that they are right
My only question is
How they comfort the families of lost ones who died for something which should not have existed,
Which by the way was the primary reason the geonim(who reeeaaally loved and cared for yidishe lives)
Were against the state.
And now this rabbi gets up and says israel does not belong to chareidim, okay
Does he not remember that the rabanim who supported zionists still considered themselves chareidim,(and probably would have retracted their support from the state upon hearing him)
Also according to the meforshim who say living in eretz yisroel is a mitzvah today,
Doesn’t that Halacha only apply to the chareidim who wont desecrate the land?
I could go for hours on this subject
Because the Zionists have a target on their backs that says hit us we are wrong.
But if they did not listen to our tzadikim who loved us and cared for us, more than any thing
(many of them who I had the pleasure to know as a little boy)
Than they surely will not listen
To a person like me.
And I wonder when they needed a yeshuah, where did they go
(definitely not rabanim like this)