Brooklyn, NY – It looks like little has changed on the B110 Williamsburg-to-Borough Park bus line, where self-segregation among the sexes remains as entrenched as ever.
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It took less than a minute before a man questioned my presence on the front of the bus on Wednesday.
“Excuse me,” said the gentleman, who appeared to be an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jew, as I squeezed in beside him. “Ladies in the back.”
“Is there a rule?” I asked him, as the women sitting in the back half of the B110 bus peered curiously at me, the only non-Jewish person on board.
“Please, ladies in the back,” he said, visibly uncomfortable.
The man switched to sit across from me.
“It’s not a rule; it’s a rule amongst us,” snapped another man.
If it’s a rider self imposed rule there is nothing the city could do about it. Although, this reporter didn’t have to oblige.
As a Lubavitcher I am embarrassed by this so called Lubavitch women’s quote her store is famous for its borderline tznius policy so please if someone within Satmer has a problem with the bus fine everyone else should be quite it seems that all is legal here providing that the driver doesn’t officially send women to the back and there are no sign’s saying that on the bus
If you read the article in the Wall Street Journal you will see that the reporter was very positive about whats going on he is not discriminant, she writes that sitting a women next to a hassidic man is as discriminating as sending women to the back, he writes that only one idiot told her to move , didn’t that idiot see that she is a reporter, come on people wake up when you something odd around you think before you say something.
Check out the full WSJ article. The reported gives the impression that Chassidim are backwards.
Also interesting is that the pic includes that plastic bags over the hats. I never understood that look, especially once said hats are safely in the bus, and out of the rain.
They are going to loose their ability to run the bus. Then there won’t be a bus from BP to Williamsburg anymore… great. Stop the nonsense and don’t risk it!
This is such a chilul hashem! But truthfully not all people would know there is an issue going on if they do not follow what’s going on in the outside world!
here we go again. so the writer is a shiksa. as such, she has the right to sit wherever she wants (since its not a private bus). So, if the nice chasidish gentleman does not want to sit next to her, then he has an option; change seats. You cant tell her “Ladies in the back”. I was just thinking… Suppose someone from out parents’ generation would have gotten on a city bus or subway and told someone “ladies in the back”. Guess they had more class than the present day “heilige chasidim”.
But as she correctly points out, it’s self-segregation. There’s no law against that. If the driver told her it was company policy, that would be another matter.
Nothing Has Changed!! If people from the Hasidic community choose to sit separate by choice what the hell is the argument??? When this Wall street wise-guy will hear the driver announcing or a sign on the bus “Separate Seating Only” let me know. And we should all have more Siechel not to open our big traps to someone that doesn’t look jewish or Hasidic and get this bus route into more issues.
What this stupid reporter want from us? Did I bother her where she live? Let people alive how they want, go take care of the wall st protesters
The full article is actually pretty funny.
In my opinion I see no problem with a man not wanting to sit next to a woman or a woman not wanting to sit next to a man but if I choose to to make that decision, then that is my responsibility. If a woman comes on the bus and sits next to me, I should be the one to move my seat. She should not have to move her seat. I feel like a broken record and so many people have said the same thing but if this selfish practice continues it needs to be repeated over and over until it stops. The selfish part is not when a man doesn’t want to sit next to a woman, but when a woman sits down, if he tells her to move, that is selfish. These people are being “frum” at the expense of others.
Why don’t we switch to have women sit in the front? Would that be ok?
WHY ARE THE RIDERS SO STUPID?
Oh! It must be that Kol M’vaser didn’t inform them that the media is all over it…
When they see a non-religious person sitting in front obviously she is not from the community and POSSIBLY covering a story for the media let them ignore her and the whole debacle will go away. (Back to the wall street occupiers…)
I’m not dismissing the issue of being under contract with the DOT and the segregation policy. I’m just saying let it cool off from the media and find solutions afterwards.
Rediculous. I am reading this article. I am reading the article about these same folks in williamsburg protesting a salon. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Do they really think this is a shtetl in europe? This is america. The only thing that will put them in their place is for a dozen bikini models to board the bus every hour and ride it until the end of the line. Then and only then, will they see that this is American, land of the FREE
Wouldn’t a simple solution be to place a sign in English in clear view of all boarding passengers asking them to respect the religious practices of the community and voluntarily segregate the seating although not required by law to do so.
Ha,Good! so what s going to happen now they will send the police to force them to sit mixed? So, we see the noshim tzidkonious will show them (by the way those noshim tzidkonious didnt see the picture of the bar miotzvah 60 years ago where they sat mixed, so they have to follow what was done all generations by ehrlicher shmrei torah umitzvous
I read the article and it was avery funny article – as opposed to an article in the “Jewish Week” which is customary of it’s reporting gave this isssue a two page spread, and in MY OPINION very slanted. But that’s the Jewish Week –
#7 You dont seem to know the topic of chillel hashem
what about this from the full article
“On the bus ride back from Borough Park to Williamsburg, I again sat in the front. This time no one said a word to me, though I got a few peculiar looks. Only one man would sit next to me. Another man offered him his seat moments later, standing up instead”
This part we forget about in our quotes
As a frum woman, I don’t really mind traveling in a “segregated” bus, unless I am with my son or husband and we want to sit together. Maybe the bus should have three sections, men, women and mixed.
ModernLakewoodGuy
I once heard from a talmid of Reb Boruch Ber ZL, who said in the name of the holy Chofetz Chaim ZL , that there is no such a concept of a “Frei Yid” becuase if he is Frei he is no Yid & if he is a Yid has in not Frei .
America is the land of the free, and we thank hashem for that , this means free to practice your religion the way you were taught by your parents and teachers, & not by sensation seeking reporters or by a non Jewish Mayor ( according to the Chofetz Chaim, which in fact is very clearly stated in the words of the holy Rambam that he who doesn’t practice the mitzvos of the Torah is not considered a Jew)
According to the values you espouse, you should change your name to ModernHollywoodGuy
Your spelling & grammer seem to indicate that you are a ModernWilliamsburgGuy
For religious reasons, men and women sit separate,but the liberal haters who don’t even live in Jewish communities,seek to further try to erode Jewish religious life. They claim that since the busses receive funding from the City, they should not be allowed to operate with separate seating of men and women. Like all other issues that liberals oppose, it smacks of hypocrisy and of a double standard. In 1996 in East Harlem, an all girls public school was opened and yet the liberals kept their fat mouths shut. The AJC American Jewish committee along with the other paper tiger organizations remained silent, but continued to fight the vouchers or public aid to yeshivas.
People here on VIN have commented that when the bus gets full, some “gentlemen” will claim a row or two from the “ezras noshim” and make the ladies move back (or stand). Someone please tell me that this is not true!
Makes me so glad that I own a car!
Anonymous 15 says:
“Wouldn’t a simple solution be to place a sign in English in clear view of all boarding passengers asking them to respect the religious practices of the community and voluntarily segregate the seating although not required by law to do so.”
How about going to Montgomery and placing a sign in English in clear view of all boarding passengers asking the Black passengers to respect the sensitivities of the White community and voluntarily sit in back of the bus?
To all u bored ppl on here…. Stop sticking ur nose in others business! One hundred percent of the regular riders on this bus want to sit separate, do we really have to accommodate the reporters who r looking for scandals? Why ru losers trying to impose ur view of life on others? I does not affect u in any way so just shut up! We have the right to live our way! We don’t tell u how to live ur life so please don’t tell us how to live!
This is NOT a private bus line. It is a NYC Transit Authority bus line. They will probably lose that bus if the city presses for compliance with Federal/State/City laws. The folks in Brooklyn need to buy a few buses and set about their segregated lives. But to have the tax payers subsidize such illegal nonsense is beyond reason.
For some reason we seem to think that since the owner is Jewish and the route caters to heimische passengers we can dictate our beliefs and customes on others. Well, we should treat this bus as an NYC MTA bus or as the subway, which “B110” legally is. would we dare to tell a woman on an MTA bus or on the subway to go to the rear? As a result the city may stop subsidizing this bus (which will double the fare) or even pull it’s franchise license to operate this route, and replace it with a city owned bus. So let’s not get hot headed and carried away by ou emotions…
Perhaps when a woman (reporter) comes on the bus we should ASK her nicely rather than TELL her, if she would kindly sit in the back, out of respect to the other passengers ….
So many comments, so many mistakes.
the way I see it IMHO;
1. the bus does not get money but needs permission and gets permission from NYC to do this route. The bus must therefor accept any passengers and obey all laws.
2, Neither the bus driver nor his employer is said to have done anything wrong here.
I wonder why this is different than me, as a white Jew, being told to go **** myself by a black fellow passenger last week. When I looked stunned he also told me it was his neighborhood and if I don’t like it get off the bus. THE NYC DRIVER IGNORED IT AND TOOK NO ACTION.
My sister told me its like this in Israel. THere was an 80 yr old lady sitting in the front of the bus and some selfish “chareidi” man came and tried kicking her to the back of the bus!!! It made a whole fuss. What about respecting elderly people!!
The crown heights/boro park bus has no official seperation and you just make sure not to sit near the opposite gender and keep your eyes to yourself!
jews are the only group in nyc permitted to segregate. and worst of all we cheer it on and when people criticize we go right to calling them anti-semites. makes me proud.
on the egged buses in yerushalayim there is a sign that states all people can sit where they want and anybody who causes a provocation will be arrested still on the lines in the religious sections the woman voluntarily go to the back . It should be the same in W/BP bus.