Who can blame the women of Beit Shemesh for wanting to cut loose? Times have been tough: They’ve been in crisis mode since the opening of school and ultra-Orthodox extremists began harassing the girls at the Orot Banot school. Not to mention the ongoing issues of increased gender segregation on buses, separate sidewalks in parts…
Hadarat nashim, translatable as “the exclusion of women,” is a Hebrew phrase with which few Israelis would have been familiar several months ago. Now there are even fewer, if any, who are unfamiliar with it. After first coming to the public’s attention late last summer over the issue of excusing Orthodox soldiers in the Israeli…
With all of the news out of Beit Shemesh, here are some “Prime Ribs” you may have missed: In Jerusalem and Ramat Gan Sunday, women and men boarded buses to protest gender segregation on public transportation, and the exclusion of women from public spaces throughout Israel. Settler “It Girl” and Israel Hayom columnist Emily Amrusi…
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward opinion editor Gal Beckerman and Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman to discuss recent stories about racist newsletters published under Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s name in the 1980s. Then the group turns to the continuing clashes in Israel over ultra-Orthodox gender segregation. Finally, Dave Goldiner…
Little Na’ama Margolese is not the first Israeli child to be harassed on her way to school by members of a fundamentalist ultra-Orthodox sect who resent her presence in or around their neighborhood. But the 8-year-old girl is the first to have her plight featured on Israeli television and turned into an international news story….
Last night, Israel’s first mass demonstration in protest of the increasing waves of Haredi violence against women took place in Beit Shemesh. It was a remarkable event, in its strength and diversity. There were speakers representing a range of organizations, Knesset members from five different political parties — including three women, two of whom are…
Thousands of Israelis amassed near the Orot girl’s school in Beit Shemesh on Tuesday to protest gender segregation in a city that has become a symbol for the struggle against religious extremism. The rally was originally slated to take place in the courtyard of the school, but the venue was changed after organizers said Haredi…
Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat was doing well for a while in her efforts to combat gender segregation. But then she, like others before her, fell into an all-too familiar trap: religious politics. Livnat, a leading Israeli legislator recently decided to take a vocal lead protesting gender segregation in the public sphere….
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