Jerusalem – AP Report: Gender Segregation On Rise in Israel

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    In this Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 photo, an Ultra Orthodox Jewish man walks past a vandalized poster showing a woman, in Jerusalem. Images of women have vanished from the streets of Israel's capital. Women have been shunted onto separate sidewalks. Buses and health clinics have been gender-segregated, and the military has considered reassigning female combat soldiers because religious men don't want to serve with them. This is the new reality in 21st-century Israel, where ultra-Orthodox rabbis are trying to contain the encroachment of secular values on their cloistered society through a fierce backlash against the mixing of the sexes in public. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)Jerusalem – Posters depicting women have become rare in the streets of Israel’s capital. In some areas women have been shunted onto separate sidewalks, and buses and health clinics have been gender-segregated. The military has considered reassigning some female combat soldiers because religious men don’t want to serve with them.

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    This is the new reality in parts of 21st-century Israel, where ultra-Orthodox rabbis are trying to contain the encroachment of secular values on their cloistered society through a fierce backlash against the mixing of the sexes in public.

    On the surface, Israel’s gender equality bona fides seem strong, with the late Golda Meir as a former prime minister, Tzipi Livni as the current opposition leader, and its women soldiers famed around the world.

    Reality is not so shiny. The World Economic Forum recently released an unfavorable image of women’s earning power in Israel, and in 2009, the last year for which data are available, Israeli women earned two-thirds what men did.

    The newly enforced separation is felt most strongly in Jerusalem, where ultra-Orthodox Jews are growing in numbers and strength. The phenomenon is starting to be seen elsewhere, though in the Tel Aviv region, Israel’s largest metropolis, secular Jews are the vast majority, and life there resembles most Western cities.

    Still, secular Jews there and elsewhere in Israel worry that their lifestyles could be targeted, too, because the ultra-Orthodox population, while still relatively small, is growing significantly. Their high birthrate of about seven children per family is forecast to send their proportion of the population, now estimated at 9 percent, to 15 percent by 2025.

    Though categorizing is difficult, it is estimated that about one-quarter of Israel’s 6 million Jews are modern Orthodox, another quarter are traditional and the rest secular.

    Numbers aside, the ultra-Orthodox wield disproportionate power in Israel’s fragmented political system.

    “The stronger the ultra-Orthodox and religious community grows, the greater its attempt to impose its norms,” said Hannah Kehat, the founder of the religious women’s forum Kolech. Their norms, she said, are “segregation of women and discrimination against them.” Ultra-Orthodox Jews around the world have long frowned upon the mixing of the sexes in their communities, but the attempt to apply this prohibition in public spaces is relatively new in Israel.

    Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, known for their black garb and flowing sidelocks, began testing gender segregation years ago when ultra-Orthodox men started ordering women on certain bus lines to sit at the back of buses traveling through their neighborhoods.

    The practice, also adopted in some ultra-Orthodox communities in the United States, was successfully challenged in Israel’s Supreme Court, and Kehat says women have been filing far fewer complaints about their treatment on buses. The vast majority of Israeli bus lines have never been segregated.

    But buses weren’t the last stop on the gender-segregation ride.

    Some supermarkets in ultra-Orthodox communities, once content to urge women patrons to dress modestly with long-sleeved blouses and long skirts, have now assigned separate hours for men and women — another practice seen in ultra-Orthodox communities in the U.S. Some health clinics have separate entrances and waiting rooms for men and women.

    Meni Shwartz-Gera, an ultra-Orthodox journalist, says strict observance of modesty is a pillar of ultra-Orthodox Judaism and is being “wickedly” misrepresented as demeaning to women. People who dislike it can choose different options like supermarkets without special hours for men and women, he said.

    “The purpose is not to denigrate women,” he said. Israel’s Supreme Court disagrees.

    Last month, the court ordered the dismantling of barriers erected in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood meant to keep women and men from walking on the same sidewalk during a religious ceremony that drew tens of thousands to the enclave’s narrow streets.

    Gender segregation “began with buses, continued with supermarkets and reached the streets,” Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch was quoted as saying during the court hearing. “It’s not going away, just the opposite.”

    The Jerusalem city councilwoman who brought the case before the court, herself a religious Jew, was fired by secular Mayor Nir Barkat.

    Barkat, who rose to power vowing to scale back the growing influence of an ultra-Orthodox population that accounts for one-third of the city’s 750,000 people, said he dismissed Rachel Azaria because she sued the city, not because she faced off against the ultra-Orthodox in court.

    For years, advertisers have been covering up female models on billboards in Jerusalem and other communities with large ultra-Orthodox populations. Ultra-Orthodox have defaced such ads and vendors faced ultra-Orthodox boycotts of companies whose mores they deplore.

    Recently, the voluntary censorship has gone beyond the scantily clad: Women are either totally absent from billboards, or, as with one clothing company’s ads, only hinted at by a photo of a back, an arm and a purse.

    Over the summer, Jerusalem inaugurated a long-awaited light rail with a major outdoor advertising campaign. The rail line is touted as a marvel of 21st-century technology, but there are no women’s faces on any of the billboards affixed to its sides.

    Advertisers acknowledge ultra-Orthodox pressure. Ohad Gibli, deputy director of marketing for the Canaan advertising agency, confirmed Monday that his company advised a transplant organization to drop pictures of women in their campaigns in Jerusalem and the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak for fear of a violent backlash.

    “We have learned that an ad campaign in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak that includes pictures of women will remain up for hours at best, and in other cases, will lead to the vandalization and torching of buses,” he told Army Radio. Barkat told reporters recently that “It’s illegal to forbid” advertising women. But “in Jerusalem, you’ve got to use common sense if you want to advertise something. It’s a special city, it’s a holy city with sensitivities for Muslims, for Christians, for ultra-Orthodox.”

    If women are being figuratively erased from the city’s advertising landscape, then there are also attempts afoot by the devout to muzzle them.

    In September, nine religious soldiers walked out of a military event because women were singing — an act that extremely devout Jews claim conjures up lustful thoughts. The military expelled four of them from an officers’ course because they refused to apologize for disobeying orders to stay.

    But in a separate case, the army notified four female combat soldiers that they might have to leave their artillery battalion to make way for religious male soldiers who object to the mixing of the sexes.


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    26 Comments
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    shredready
    shredready
    12 years ago

    didn’t I hear the ultra Orthodox say they are not imposing their views on others

    another lie by shas

    “Advertisers acknowledge ultra-Orthodox pressure. Ohad Gibli, deputy director of marketing for the Canaan advertising agency, confirmed Monday that his company advised a transplant organization to drop pictures of women in their campaigns in Jerusalem and the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak for fear of a violent backlash”

    Then the ultra Orthodox should also say we will not take an organ from a woman

    leave with the consequences of your actions

    anyway the donor card is a fraud since the ultra Orthodox have an out since a family members must approve of course that will not happen. Simple another scam

    when will the secular Israelis understand to deception of the ultra Orthodox

    (to all I am speaking about a sunset of frum not all)

    it is another way for the ultra Orthodox to get benefits organs but not give anything in return

    shredready
    shredready
    12 years ago

    I meant

    live with the consequences of your actions (not, leave with the consequences of your actions)

    (to all I am speaking about a subset of frum not all) not (to all I am speaking about a sunset of frum not all)

    Queenbee
    Queenbee
    12 years ago

    I do not believe in this whole segregation business.
    But I do not understand why it’s called denigration of women. Both men and women are segregated equally. Both have to walk at different sidewalks, both have to sit beside curtains on the bus etc. etc. If it’s called denigration of women it should be called denigration of men. Both are being equally segregated.

    SouthernBubbie
    SouthernBubbie
    12 years ago

    As a frum woman, I like the idea of separate grocery hours for men and women. I’ll never forget when I was visiting Israel and needed to get some groceries for Shabbat, and a man pushed into me to get ahead in line with no thought of modesty or restraint. This was a frum-looking man and you’d think he would have known better. If I shop with only other women, I would feel more protected against these invasive things. I already like sitting on buses in the women’s section. The men sometimes don’t smell so good and they take up more than their share of room, sprawling all over the seats. Women don’t do that, so it is more comfortable for me. And yes, I know that all this sounds very politically incorrect, but it truly is my preference to be segregated.

    SherryTheNoahide
    SherryTheNoahide
    12 years ago

    How sad! Women are such a vital & important role in the family, as well as in the community. I NEVER hear a Rabbi on a lecture say anything disparaging against women- especially decent frum ones! And yet…. Israel is taking further & further steps to shun & hide them away from society?! When will the craziness end?!

    There are loads of proper, frum women out there, who’s voices are not getting heard & who are being disrespected by this nonsense! Right now, we NEED more advertisements, media & social institutions to RECOGNIZE proper, frum women & what they contribute to the family, etc! NOT to hide them from all of society as if they don’t exist!

    What’s better: A picture of a family around the Shabbos table, with the Mom (dressed modestly of course), serving the bread & wine…

    Or the half-naked nonsense that’s allowed in Ambercrombie & Fitch advertisements all over the place?!?!

    What kind of message are we sending to our daughters?! That only 1\2 naked women will get a chance to be a proper part of society?! Please!

    It’s time to stand up for proper modest women! Even as a gentile I keep modest! We need to focus on family values & decent women MORE… not less!

    5towns
    5towns
    12 years ago

    Reply to #4
    You wouldn’t say that if the time you had available for shopping was designated a men’s only hour. Or what if you wanted to shop with your husband?

    eighthcomment
    eighthcomment
    12 years ago

    Its an AP article- I wouldn’t take it too seriously. They are just jealous that we don’t bow to the immoral pressures of society- The AP can write a real damaging report about womens rights in the entire middle eaßt region but chose Israel and specifically Yerushalayim-the Holiest place and the meah shearim neighborhood- no one that is interested in living there is forced to. I’m very proud to be a Jew and even more proud that there are yidden who take religion seriously.

    Aryeh
    Aryeh
    12 years ago

    If the fanatic secular citizens of Israel had exercised a slightly less obtrusive chutzpa in their advertising campaigns, perhaps this situation would not have escalated. This fanatic reaction is itself a reaction to an equally fanatic campaign of anti-religious fascism. And so the cycle repeats…

    PrettyBoyFloyd
    PrettyBoyFloyd
    12 years ago

    This is the new Judaism.

    FrustratedWithStateOfYahdus
    FrustratedWithStateOfYahdus
    12 years ago

    Of course, the people who are graffiting the the posters, are they doing it in broad daylight? At night? Making sure there are witnesses? I guess they are more afraid of people and their laws than God omnipresence and the issurim of nezikim.

    whataworld
    whataworld
    12 years ago

    I love the way Israel is getting all this attention. what about what’s going on in the arab world? That would make somewhat of a story! This is nothing compared to them. Goes to prove that we will always remain the sheep amongst the wolves till moshiach’s times. Don’t anyone attempt to fight it, it aint gonna work.

    FrustratedWithStateOfYahdus
    FrustratedWithStateOfYahdus
    12 years ago

    I wonder if these guys who are defacing the posters are doing it in broad daylight in front of people? Or do they do it in secret at night? If at night, are they more afraid of man than the omnipresence of God? That’s why gneiva is worse than gtzeila since it shows the thief is more afraid of people than Hashem. Maybe they need to learn hilchos nizikim and worry less about other people’s perfection.

    as-it-is
    as-it-is
    12 years ago

    Before complaining about separation in Charedi society they should compare incidents of rape and harrasement in Charedi and secular society. Then we’ll see who discriminates against woman.

    FredE
    FredE
    12 years ago

    Concerning this question of denigration of women… IMHO, both the advertising media and the Charedim have something in common. They both are able to view women only as objects. In the case of the ad people this mentality leads to exploitation to sell products. In the case of Charedim this viewpoint leads to general fear of the female species and all kinds of discriminatory nonsense. But really these are two sides of the same coin — an inability to view women as anything other then temptresses and objects. Isnt it amazing how much both sides have in common?

    12 years ago

    Are these Chasidim so lacking of self control that the mere sight of someone of the opposite gender is enough to have them lust in their heart? If so, this is sick.

    Ariela
    Ariela
    12 years ago

    When the women of these communities speak out at home and outside the home then and only then will something change, only then will they listen if they want Shalom Biet, Most women who live in these communities feel protected and safe and feel no need for change. Truth is women have more power in this than the outside world realizes. As for women’s photo’s being eliminated this is not right at all, it erases history and much chessid by women of valor from our past and our present and no example for our future. Something’s are going to far out of what true holiness is.