In honor of Purim, that most silly time of year, when we are commanded to drink and disguise ourselves until we cannot recognize even those we know best, I’d been planning a fantasy Purim spoof of my own, in which men and women switch places on segregated buses. Women take over the front, and men are sent to the back. This would go well with one of Purim’s basic themes, l’hafokh <\/i>– to turn things around, or upside down.<\/p>\n
But my Purim fantasy could come true this year. Following our recent successful hearing on segregated buses, we’ve just received more good news from the Supreme Court. It looks as though the Justices will help us turn things around and back to where they should be: public buses free of discrimination, men and women free to sit wherever they choose. I’ll have to have my Purim silliness imagining the (comparatively) more banal sight of Haredi men in drag.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday, Supreme Court justices ordered Transportation Minister
\nYisrael Katz to explain why he ignored the findings of his committee.
\nThe committee had found that segregation was illegal, coercive, and
\ndone on an involuntary basis – none of which Katz addressed in his
\ndecision. What’s more, the Justices also issued a rare injunction: No
\nnew segregated lines will be added, and currently segregated buses will
\nno longer be able to operate under such a title. <\/p>\n
Justice Elyakim Rubinstein took particular offense at the labeling of these segregated lines as “mehadrin<\/i>,” as if it somehow sanctified segregation, and set it as the highest level of kashrut<\/i>.
\nThere certainly will be no signs instructing men to sit in front, and
\nwomen in back as Katz had suggested; instead, buses will have doors
\nopening in both front and back, with men and women boarding from
\nwhichever entrance they desire. The case is far from over, but we have
\ndefinitely pulled ahead. <\/p>\n
So, this Purim, we will celebrate the “turning around” of segregated lines – which already seemed pretty upside down to me.<\/p>\n
Today I’d like to wish you a happy Purim, as IRAC’s newsletter, The
\nPluralist, will be on holiday next week, recovering from the
\nfestivities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In honor of Purim, that most silly time of year, when we are commanded to drink and disguise ourselves until we cannot recognize even those we know best, I’d been planning a fantasy Purim spoof of my own, in which men and women switch places on segregated buses. Women take over the front, and men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}