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Posted: 22-10-2011 08:14 Post subject:

NY bus accused of sex discrimination

New York City officials say they could shut a bus service running through an Orthodox Jewish area that is accused of asking women to sit at the back.
Officials have written to the firm operating the bus asking what they are doing to prevent discrimination.

The B110 bus is operated by a private firm under a franchising agreement with the city, but is open to the public.
A student journalist published a story this week reporting that a woman on the bus was asked to sit at the back.

The New York Times later reported that a woman passenger on the B110 had said men and women also sat apart on similar bus services catering for the city's Hasidic Jewish community.

New York City's Department of Transportation director, Anne Koenig, has asked the company that operates the B110 to respond to the claims.
"Please be advised that a practice of requiring women to ride in the back... would constitute a direct violation of your franchise agreement and may lead to termination of that agreement," she wrote, reports Reuters news agency.

The department said the firm that runs the service had no exemptions from city's anti-discrimination standards.
Officials said the public bus has been franchised since 1973 to the Private Transportation Corporation, which has not yet commented.
Mayor Mike Bloomberg told reporters on Wednesday that segregating men and women was "obviously not permitted" on public buses.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15411791

Posted: 16-11-2011 11:50 Post subject:

Jerusalem mayor battles ultra-orthodox groups over women-free billboards
Female models erased from advertisements across city after religious lobby brands the images as offensive
Phoebe Greenwood in Jerusalem guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 November 2011 19.16 GMT

Jerusalem's secular mayor, Nir Barkat, has pitted himself against the city's swelling ranks of ultra-orthodox extremists by demanding that local police enable women to reclaim their position in the public domain.

Over recent months, women's faces have disappeared from billboards across the city amid mounting pressure applied by the powerful ultra-orthodox lobby, who find the female image offensive.
Several advertisers have erased female models from their posters in Jerusalem. Elsewhere in Israel, the winter campaign of Israeli clothing brand Honigman features a model cosily dressed in winter knits. In the capital, the woman's head has been removed from the image, leaving just her arm and a handbag.

Companies that do not fall in line with the standards of the extreme ultra-orthodox have frequently fallen victim to direct action. Across Jerusalem, female figures have been blacked out of billboards with spray-paint, or vandalised with graffiti branding the image "illegal". Other posters are simply torn down.

On Sunday, Barkat wrote a letter to district police commander Niso Shaham in which he said: "We must make sure that those who want to advertise [with] women's images in the city can do so without fear of vandalism and defacement of billboards or buses showing women."
Police have confirmed an increase in vandalism on the borders of Jerusalem's closed ultra-orthodox neighbourhoods. Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police would be stepping up patrols to prevent further acts of hooliganism and ensure it is investigated.
Rosenfeld added that despite being pelted with stones, police officers made several arrests in the orthodox Meah Shearim neighbourhood last week.

But activists claim the battle over Jerusalem's billboards is only one manifestation of an alarming trend towards gender segregation across Israel driven by the religious right.
Activist Hila Benyovich-Hoffman was spurred to take action by reports that nine male cadets in the Israeli Defence Force had walked out of an army event in September because women were singing. Four were expelled from an officer's training course for refusing to apologise.

"This was the final straw for me, that these cadets could humiliate female soldiers because some rabbi has told them that a woman's voice is indecent. The army used to be a source of pride because women served alongside men as equals. But more and more, rabbis are influencing army behaviour," Benyovich-Hoffman said.
She organised a series of demonstrations last Friday in which hundreds of women gathered for "singalongs" in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheva to demand their right to a public presence. She says much more needs to be done.

It is not just secular Israelis that have been moved to protest. Members of the Haredi ultra-orthodox community themselves are reporting a rise in assaults on women. One orthodox website reported this week that three orthodox girls had been physically attacked in Jerusalem for dressing immodestly.

The Israeli Religious Action Centre (IRAC) was founded more than a decade ago to take on the fight against gender segregation, which is illegal in Israel. They receive around four calls a day from mostly orthodox Jewish women complaining of segregation in medical centres, on pavements, in post offices, graveyards and, most often, on buses. The centre estimates that daily, between 500 and 600 bus journeys in Israel are segregated.

"I feel like a fire fighter – this issue spreads and spirals like a fire," saids the IRAC's director Anat Hofman. "But the fact that our case load is increasing is a good thing – it means more people are sensitive to the problem and are prepared to stand up against it."

Jerusalem's deputy mayor, Naomi Tsur, admits the situation is "deplorable" but also says that women's rights have never had a better chance of flourishing in Jerusalem. For decades until November 2008, under the leadership of an orthodox mayor, billboards featuring women simply weren't allowed in the city.
Tsur said: "We are talking about a very extreme group of people who don't recognise the authority of the city, the police, the government or the high court. It is critically important that we don't let this minority dominate."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/15/jerusalem-mayor-battle-orthodox-billboards

Posted: 22-04-2013 07:42 Post subject:

Here's one urban legend disposed of:

Sex through a hole in a sheet?

It's widely believed that ultra-Orthodox Jews are so concerned about modesty that they have sex through a hole in a sheet.

But this is a total myth says Ribner: "There has never been a group of Jews anywhere in the world that has advocated having sex through a hole in a sheet - that has never happened. It doesn't happen today, it never happened in history. It's not advocated in any text within the Jewish community."

From:

The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
By Daniel Estrin

...

[Ribner] says publication of a sex manual for Orthodox Jews was long overdue.

Ultra-Orthodox boys and girls are educated separately, and have little interaction with the opposite sex until their marriage night, when they are expected to consummate their union. Shocked

Physical touch with the opposite sex - even something like a handshake - is only permitted with one's spouse and close family members. Access to films and the internet is often restricted.

"We wanted there to be a place where people could say, 'I know nothing and I want to know something,'" says Ribner.
The Newlywed's Guide to Physical Intimacy, which Ribner co-wrote with Orthodox researcher Jennie Rosenfeld, starts with the very basics - explaining, for example, how the body shape of men and women differs.

Ribner says Judaism regards sex as something positive, but it has become taboo to discuss it openly.
"Sex is only appropriate within a marital context," he says. "Beyond that it's not talked about. Because of that, it's become very difficult for people to have any kind of dialogue about it."

...

It took a while to find an open-minded translator of Orthodox Jewish background who could translate the book using language that would appeal to a devout reader, says Ribner.
The book is direct in its language and touches on subjects that may be uncomfortable for some, including oral sex and masturbation.

When the Hebrew edition is released in a few weeks' time, it could create quite a storm, says Menachem Friedman, a professor and sociologist who has written numerous books on Israel's ultra-Orthodox community.
"I suspect it will meet tremendous negative reaction - at least within the most extreme elements of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community," he says.

But he agrees that such a book is sorely needed, and foresees brisk behind-the-counter sales. Wink

For a newly-married couple, it can be very traumatic, he says, to go from a lifetime of near-separation from the opposite sex to a full sexual relationship in just one night.

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22152700

Posted: 22-04-2013 20:16 Post subject:

The Daily Maul has yet another story about orthodox Jews and a sex manual written especially for them.
You wait ages for a bit of good, old-fashioned anti-semitism then several items come along at once. Seriously, I think there's something pretty nasty going on regarding the pushing of this sort of article.

Let's not forget The Daily Mail ran similar stories in the 1940's.

Posted: 22-04-2013 20:25 Post subject:

Is it true?
I mean, is it anti-semitism if it's true?

Posted: 22-04-2013 21:28 Post subject:

Posted: 23-04-2013 02:07 Post subject:

Posted: 23-04-2013 20:26 Post subject:

'Fundies'. Laughing

Posted: 23-04-2013 21:51 Post subject:

Posted: 09-08-2013 11:43 Post subject:

Lighting candles is not very weird - lots of people do it. Seems to me that Aberystwyth Uni is cutting off its nose to spite its face.

Ban on candles 'has cost seaside town £100K' as Hasidic Jews go elsewhere
A Welsh holiday town has lost out on over £100,000 from Jewish tourists, who have gone elsewhere after a health and safety ban on lit candles, it was claimed.
By Rosa Silverman
11:00AM BST 08 Aug 2013

For 20 years, more than a thousand Hasidic Jews have taken their summer break in the seaside resort of Aberystwyth, where they rented student village accommodation for two weeks.

But Aberystwyth University said this year that lit candles were banned in the houses on health and safety grounds following “more than one incident” involving the group.
As lighting candles is part of the weekly Shabbat tradition in the Jewish religion, most of the holidaymakers are now taking their break at other destinations with university accommodation.

Myer Rothfeld, a senior member of the Hasidic community, told the Cambrian News: “The people of this area are very respectful and we hold them in great esteem and love coming here.
“We’ve tried everything possible to get round it, offering to supply our own fire insurance, to use lanterns or even to put the candles on sand, but they keep saying ‘no’.

“It’s once a week for two hours and we’ve had one incident in 20 years, while the fire service are called out hundreds of times each year to halls for incidents or false alarms.
“The university and the town will have lost out on over £100,000 from us not being able to come now.”

The university has said that the use of candles and naked flames in all its residences is prohibited, a rule that is set out in the terms and conditions all visitors must sign and abide to during their stay.

A spokesman said: “The university maintains its position that we would be delighted to welcome the Orthodox Jewish community to Aberystwyth for their holiday visit.
“Alternative options continue to be considered by both parties in a productive and positive manner.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10230456/Ban-on-candles-has-cost-seaside-town-100K-as-Hasidic-Jews-go-elsewhere.html

I've noticed orthodox Jewish groups at our university for the last two or three summers. I always assumed they were there for some religious conference - the thought that they were just on holiday didn't cross my mind till I saw this!