I Want to Walk These Streets —
Even If They ARE Mean

Don’t ultra-Orthodox women deserve to walk wherever they want? Are they supposed to continue to be viewed by radical rabbis as forbidden fruit, barred from walking on the street to avoid having inflamed men gaze at these seductresses,  mummified in their dark-colored apparel?
This absurdity has to come to an end sometime. An entire country doesn’t have to kowtow to those who refuse to recognize half the population as equal.

We are lucky to have activists like my daughter, Avital Feldman (pictured here), and if my mother would be alive today and see her granddaughter carrying a sign in Yiddish (with a typo), saying: “women can go wherever they want,” she’d have smiled. And agreed.

Tali and her fellow members of the Feminist Student’s Organization go out there and protest gender discrimination in Jerusalem’s streets. Yes, even in Meah She’arim. She’s even gone there and torn down those offensive modesty posters. And argued with ultra-Orthodox men, who seem to have no problem talking to an attractive, assertive and savvy law student.

Now, there are those who, in the name of “let’s be nice and respect everyone, even if they trample on our basic rights,” may defend the ultra-Orthodox’s right to “govern their own streets.”

But these streets do not belong to any one person, sect, group or gender. There’s no reason to segregate such streets, whether it’s a holiday or not. Most recently, with the Succot holiday, those who take it upon themselves to dictate the ultra-Orthodox’s lives — and thoughts — the idea was to make sure there was no interaction between men and women on the streets of Meah She’arim.

The State Attorney’s Office representative Osnat Mandel took exception to this action, stating that while gender separation was being enforced only over  15 meters of  sidewalk, and only during late night hours, it was still illegal. And, surprise, surprise, the ultra-Orthodox leadership agreed to remove the barriers.

Is this the beginning of breaking down the greater barrier of mistrust, suspicion, and yes, even senseless hatred between the ultra-Orthodox and ROW — the rest of the world?

Isn’t it time that we — whether we’re secular, “modern Orthodox,” or other — take back our streets, no matter where we are?

Isn’t it time we take back our buses, where gender segregation persists?

Isn’t it time we’re mad as hell and not willing to take it anymore?

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