Eretz Yisrael Sheli

Hello everyone!  Happy Bastille Day to those who are celebrating! (the only reason I know this is happening is because I live down the road from the French Consulate) 

Rather than re-cap my entire week, which has been simultaneously exhausting and incredible, I am going to focus on one particular event that stood out to me.  This week has been orientation, so every day we have lectures and programming that relate to both the land of Israel and our time at HUC.  As part of forging a connection to Israel, we had a program this evening entitled "My Jerusalem" where we were divided up into groups of about 8 people and paired with an Israeli.  Each Israeli had a connection either to the college or to a person who worked there, and each one planned a different program.  My "guide" for the evening works for the Israeli Religious Action Center, run by Anat Hoffman who is also in charge of the controversial Women of the Wall minyan (more about that in another post!).  The IRAC (a very unfortunate acroynm in this particular part of the world) focuses on social justice issues within Israel and raising awareness both in the country and abroad about injustices that take place every day.  One such issue that they are particularly focused on is segregated buses.

A brief history: In the last few years there have been pushes from the Ultra Orthodox community in Israel to make certain public city buses segregated (women in the back, men in the front).  In 1999 there were only a handful of public buses that were segregated, but by 2010 there were 60 bus lines that were segregated.  The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that this goes against Israeli law, and mandated that all buses post signs saying that you can sit anywhere you want regardless of your gender.  They also ordered the bus company to publish ads in all the newspapers in the country saying that the bus lines are no longer segregated.  Some Ultra Orthodox papers refused to publish the advertisement, and when they were forced to, added their own disclaimer at the bottom of the ad saying that people should still segregate.  Now, there are only 2 bus lines in Jerusalem that are still considered segregated, even though legally people can sit wherever they want.  There are more unofficially segregated buses throughout Israel, but thanks to the work of the IRAC, this is declining.  IRAC has started having volunteers go on these particular bus lines and challenge the segregation.  There have been about 500 such events in the last few years, with volunteers both Israeli and otherwise coming to support the cause. 

So, as part of our program, we took a taxi to a very Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem and then rode one of these segregated buses.  There were 8 of us total, three men and 5 women, and all of us stood in the general vicinity of the front of the bus.  When we first boarded, some of the men sitting in the front yelled at us and said that this was a segregated bus and we (the women) needed to sit in the back.  One man got so angry he got off the bus at the next stop!  Some of the women on the bus also told us that we (again, the women) had to sit in the back.  One of my male classmates sat in the "women's section" but people didn't seem to make as much of a scene over that as they did to the females sitting closer to the front.  We were on the bus for about 20-25 minutes, which was a good enough amount of time to get a sense of the issue.  For the most part nobody said anything to us, although we did receive some strange looks from some of the passengers (both male and female). After we got off the bus, we took taxis back to the city center and had dinner and debriefed our experience. 

All in all, the trip was really eye opening, and provided me with a glimpse into a community that I don't get to interact with very much.  Obviously there are a lot of Ultra Orthodox people in Jerusalem, but going to an area that is very clearly defined as "theirs" was different than seeing them in the Old City or other places near the center of town, mixed in with all the tourists and other more secular Israelis.  Also, so much that is done in Israel is controversial, and so many people protest or riot or make statements about things that are happening both on a state level and in their communities.  However, rarely do I feel like these statements make much of a difference in terms of policy change.  It seems often that protests or rallies tend to only serve to raise awareness about a cause, which while vitally important, doesn't necessarily mean anyone's opinion will change.  The issue of segregated buses was one that I assumed would fall into this category.  What difference would it make if I sat in the men's section of a segregated bus?  No Ultra Orthodox man is going to see me there and suddenly decide that segregation is wrong and that women should be able to sit wherever they want solely based on my presence.  However, this has been done enough times and the IRAC has made enough of an issue out of it that policies really have changed.  Obviously its going to take time, and there will always be buses (just like the one I was on tonight) that will still remain mostly segregated, even if legally they aren't.  But the pressure from the IRAC has already caused so much progress to be made regarding this issue, and I felt excited and exhilarated to have been a part of the process to create positive change in Israel. 

Tomorrow is a much more uneventful day, although it is my little sister Emily's birthday so I will definitely have to call home at some point.  I am planning on sleeping in and then relaxing before services at HUC.  My time in Israel so far has been outstanding, and I have felt happier and more at peace here than I have felt in a while.  I am so excited to continue this journey and learn more about myself, the country I live in, and the Jewish tradition.  An early Shabbat Shalom to all of you, and look out for another post soon!

xoxoxo
Rebecca