Re: separate services

[Marvin <physchem...>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky" <reyzl (at) flash(dot)net>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2001 8:08 AM
Subject: RE: separate services


> >It's almost like the women are sitting at the back of the bus.
>
> High school gym classes are not a good analogy to synagogue services, but
> people sitting on the bus comes a bit closer.  For women in an Orthodox
> shul, it is like sitting in the back of the bus.  Actually, on private
> Hasidic buses, which many Hasidim use to travel around NYC, the women
> literally sit in the back of the bus while the men sit in the front.  (Boy
> is this telling tales out of school.)  However, some years ago (late
> 1970's?), many Hasidic women got upset at this setup
<snip>

About two years ago, there was a court case in Rockland County, NY.  Hasidic
men used a PUBLIC bus to go to work in NYC, and held morning services on the
bus.  They told a non-Jewish woman, also on the way to work, to get off the
bus (or perhaps to sit in the back), and she took the matter to court.  I'm
not sure how the case turned out, but I can't imagine any civil court ruling
against the woman.  This is the same group of hasidim who want separate
public school buses to transport their boys and girls to school.  Yes, the
same ones involved in Pres. Clinton's most recent problems.

How they choose to live their lives is nobody else's business, but when they
impose their views on others they have crossed a line, in my view.

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