Don't want to train with women around, buy your own equipment and do it at home alone. Better those that do not want to train with members of the opposite sex stay out of the gym.

First they start with buses in Jerusalem , then this ugly behavior will spread to other towns. Then they ban women from singing, now as we see from this article now they are starting with academic institutions, they take and inch then a mile. Israel will not become a jewish teliban state neither will we except religious coercion in our lives. All because the religious have some kind of sexual obsession.

every gym in the world has times just for men and just for women you just making a fuss out of nothing

I think it's great that they're offering separate-sex hours...but with the caveat that women who want women's-only hours should get them, too! They need a minimum of 30 requests? What if women are too shy to request it because they're afraid of being shot down? If men get mens-only hours, women should get womens-only hours as well.

People complain that the religious don't do army service - so what happens when they do join the army? The army does Kasher dietary restrictions and allows religious soldiers to refuse to evacuate settlements, and some soldiers now boycott female singers. This is just what happens when you invite the religious into secular institutions - the institutions change. Pretty much everything in Israel will end up changing, given the religious birth rates. Is it a bad thing for the future of Israel? Probably. No Western countries, or Western Jews or other people would want to support a country that is just a Jewish version of Iran or Saudi Arabia.

Just a couple of hours late at night in a university gym for men only is a tiny act of consideration for a student group which is entitled to be accommodated in this way. The strident cries of the hiloni students against this novelty is basically denying the freedom of the Haredi students to observe their own customs which do no actual damage to the student body as a whole.

Why the hell a vast majority should adjust itself to a tiny minority? Because seeing members of the other sex is offensive to them? Guess we're living in the middle ages and extreme religious fanatics run this country. This is what's going to happen, unless the fanatics are shown their place, shown that they can not determine how everybody lives, shown that they are not alone and do not live in a vacuum.

this is slippery slope. one must ask why now? Why are the Orthos in Irael becoming incrasingly more radical and vocal? Israel must separate religion from state and enact laws prohibiting gender apartheid. In addition ,the religious school systems should be abolished. Only secular education should be allowed in the country; they can supplement their Jewish education using their own money, NOT ours!

The segration is only two hours a week. The rest of the week is mixte. Why make a problem out of this?

Build wall separating parts of gym. Those that want to be "men only" stay in that sectioned off room and others that don't mind mixing - men and women - on the other side. How much can one wall cost ? For peace !

Some men/women don't feel comfortable exercising in the same gym with people of the opposite sex. What is so abnormal about that? Perhaps there should be separate gym hours for men,women, and coed unions. I'm sure the Technion can come to a compromise where both parties will be happy.We have pools and gyms in our neighborhood with separate hours for men,women,and those who want to workout together and there hasn't been any complaints about it. Just because men can't participate in certain activities with women doesn't mean women are being excluded from it.Women can have their fun and outlets too but not all men want to be a part of it. Live and let live.

No. In the US there are no separate hours for men and women. We call it segregation and it is illegal. Liberal jews in the US already view israel as if it was afghanistan under the taliban, lets hope bibi finally puts an end to this treatment of women before the rest of the US agrees.

The left and non-religious factions are trying to make a non-event into a big story. For years in the US & Europe Gyms and fitness centres have often catered to women seeking only women hours, so whats the problem????

The Hiloni and anti-religous are currently making life tough for everyone, themselves included. This country is for both religous and non-religious jews alike. unfortunately the non-religious have forgotten this and want to coerce the religious into submitting to their lifestyle. This is not a new phenomena, in fact it happened centuries ago on Hanukah. The non-religious wanted to submit to the Greek secular way of living and actively sought to force the religious into submission. Thanks to Gods help the Maccabeans beat the greeks and the Jewish people survived. It is time for the Hiloni community to wake up and realise that all this bickering and Haredi bashing does us no good whatsoever!!!!!

Dear chiloni brothers and sisters, (I speak as someone who grew up without a clue about traditional Jewish values and today do my best to follow the guidelines of the Torah.) Ask yourselves why would perfectly healthy men NOT want to exercise in the presence of scantily glad women. It is not because they do not like women or find them attractive -- it is precisely the opposite. By waiting to see women's bodies in a more appropriate and intimate setting, they will heighten that relationship with the one that they love. We get immune to things that we see all the time. Can you imagine how 'erotic' a woman's arm used to be to a man who was accustomed to seeing women in long-sleeves? Before you are quick to bash me, I am not just thinking about this from the man's perspective. Every woman wants to excite her man and know that he is attracted to her and the opposite is true. We appreciate the Torah's guidelines of not stealing, murdering, respecting parents, giving tzedakah, telling the truth in court, returning a lost object to its owner...is it possible that the Torah's guidelines of modesty are also filled with WISDOM?

Saying gyms in the US have no seperate hours is a bold face lie Dov

The religious don't dictate the lives of others in public venues.. if they survive in new york this way they survive in israel this way. The super religious are what prevent me from moving back to israel.

As an Israeli, this slippery slope the capitulation to religious demands is appalling to me. This is not the Israel I knew. This will only get worse as the religious numbers grow.

The gym is mixed all week long except for 2 hours - come on!! The religious have a right to use the gym just as much as the seculars. If they cannot be accommodated, it's secular coercion! The anti-religious media has so incited against the religious, that every non-story causes an explosion of anger instead of tolerance and understanding that every sector has its own special needs. 2 hours a week!!! Seriously ...?

The natural extrapolation from this quote is that women are dangerous predators who either eat men alive or disrupt their lives in such a way by their mere presence that they must be kept clear of at all times. How disgusting is this whole affair about the exclusion of women going to get. If we do not put the brakes on this now then the future for this country of ours will be very bleak. I predict that lots of folks will leave and seek their fortune elsewhere and this will be on grounds of principle as they will find it very difficult to live in a society that puts constraints on individuals and certain sectors. Liberte, Egalite,Fraternite. These ideals are of cardinal importance and should not be contingent on the whims of this or that sector. Regression and oppression are not conducive to a modern society. Freethinkers are the engine of Mankind whereas religious zealots are the bane of Mankind. This has been proven time and time again and is not open for discussion.

I am religious, and when I first joined an all-women gym, there were no religious women there. The idiot quoted in the article is full of it - the hours were added for men, not taken away from anyone else. What is wrong with people - the attitude and lack of respect of the secular is what makes the religious so extreme, in case you were wondering.

but the United States, unlike here, has freedom of religion.

this whole thing is absurd. there is no descrimanation or exclusion of women issue at the technion gym or anywhere else in the school. a gym has the right to have seperate hours as many gyms around israel and the world do. i think what really happened here was that the night this whole thing started the girls didnt know or realize they were supposed to leave when the time came and then when they had to be told to leave and ppl were waiting on them they were embarressed and decided to make a big deal out of it. they all know that their fellow students dont think of them as lesser people or sex objects. we all work together in school, survive together and party together and that includes the religious guys. its not a crazy thing to respect them and allow them a couple hours a week in the gym with out girls. as to the post wondering why there werent womens only hours added, the answer is that there werent enough women who would commit to using the seperate hours and the gym had originally told them they would only do it if there were enough people.is it a shame? yes because i do believe many women would be more comfortable with out men around as they work out ,having nothing to do with religious beliefs, but thats life...

I don't know what you're on about. In the UK we have some separate hours for men and women in none Jewish pools and gym and noone makes a fuss. This fuss is just about Jews not getting on with each other. Do religious Jews not have a right to train or swim? This is not sexist, quite the opposite, this is about giving every1 an oppertunity to lead a normal life - the religious too. Oh! and by the way the liberal Jews in the U.S. have such a Jewish identity that they have an %80 intermarriage rate.

I went to gyms in chutz 20 years ago, and even then there were some hours for just men, some for just women, and some mixed. This is nothing but incitement.

The chelonim complain that the Religious are not in the army, and then force them to go against their religion about something unimportant. The chelonim complain that the religious do not get educated and then complain about a university Gym making small allowances for the religious students. This smacks of Anti-religious coercion. And who says those that dont want to be in mixed classes are the minority. And who says they will be in the future?