First Rosa Parks. Now Tanya Rosenblit. Well done Tanya :).

harass on a public bus. Those of you obvious females who wrote that she should "have known" it was a haredi busline and moved to the back of the bus need to wake up. It is the 21st century and you should be ashamed of yourselves. Shall we now have separate drinking fountains with signs over them saying who is permitted to drink from them? Shall women not be permitted in swimming pools? Shall women not be allowed to walk in public alone or enter a bookstore without harassment? It is time that we ask ourselves just whose country this is? Does it belong to the minorities with the loudest voices and the most political clout in the Knesset or does it belong to us human beings? None of you scribblers grew up in the US South as I did. I am glad this was not me on that bus. I am not as nice as Ms. Rosenblit, nor as polite in the face of religious fanatics.

I feel sorry for you.

This is part of what happens in Israel against Jews themselves....What can be said about what they do against arabs.... And the worst is what setllers do against palestinains in west bank... Admit it ...This is the way to vanish.. When you don't respect others' rights then you well end up not respecting your people's rights and then you own ones till your society vanishs..

If the jews do not respect women, equality for men and women, then how on earth should the islamic followers, which still have their brains in the stone-age!!

"haredim mehadrin" bus? It's an Egged bus for anyone wanting to travel between Ashdod and Jerusalem. As an Egged bus it is subsidized by the government, meaning taxpayers are financing these busses. We all know who pays taxes and who doesn't .

we'll get these eat-for-frees under control, force them to do national service, stop fearing vaginas, and go to work; because while the Torah is a powerful book, it's not a job.

This is actually a clash between the values of the Torah and the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and the Galut-religion called Judaism. Torah will eventually prevail, because it is from Hashem.

Plse prove me wrong!

Hareidi website Kikar HaShabat quoted eyewitnesses to the incident as saying that Rosenblit deliberately provoked the brouhaha. "She got on the bus at Hana Senesh street, listened to songs and even hummed, but no one talked to her," said one of them, who remained anonymous. But then, he said, she touched someone who passed in the aisle with her elbow. He asked her to sit in the back, as is common in these bus lines. When she refused, he remained standing near the door, according to Kikar HaShabat. Another hareidi man turned to her and requested: "Maybe you can respect us? I ask you as one Jew to another." According to this version of events, five passengers got off the bus and many others refused to get on it because of Rosenblit. The driver refused to intervene, and said that he was not allowed to. Police were called in. The policeman "was very polite and tried to talk to her," said a witness, "but she shouted in the bus and said she would sing out loud, threatened that she would take off her clothes and even started to touch the buttons of her blouse." According to Kikar HaShabat, Rosenblit denied the accusations and said: "This is a vile lie, I did not touch anyone. Perhaps in a moment of anger I said some things that I should not have said."

Thank you for standing up for your self.

Here is the true story: there were many African-Americans who tried to sit up front during the segregation days, but they did not become icons because they were seen as not being the "ideal" image the Civil Rights activists wished to project. I am a haredi mother of 9, grandmother of 29, disabled, walk with a cane. I would not move to the rear of a bus if ordered to do so. And I could rip out a disrecpectful grobber yung in fluent Yiddish if necessary.

It is time for groups of women and men to stand up to these fanatical cavemen heredi morons and stage sit ins on these busses. The haredi are just plain rude

So proud of you! Disgusted with our successive, coniving and colluding politicians, pretending to be shocked, but at the same time turning a blind eye, quietly adding and abetting this midevil, primitive behaviour - cowards!

I'm no Torah scholar, but I've been reading it -- admittedly in English -- Shabbat by Shabbat for almost 40 years. I don't recall seeing any command that forbids men to sit near women. As best I can figure, Haredi men have invented this humra, ostensibly to keep them from their own real or imagined weakness. I'd think most women should want to dress with some sense of self-respect, but the simple fact is that no matter how provocatively a woman may dress, men need to keep their hands to themselves -- as most of us in most western countries manage to do.

Were you in J'lem or Riyadh?

existed before the Babylonian Exile, possibly the types practiced in the Kingdom of Israel which had their own holy texts, but those are now lost. That religion is practiced today by the 700 Samaritans that exist today (result of mixing of Israelites and Assyrians) The Torah we have today is the Judahite book and their Judaism came about officially after the Exile. We don't have any extra-biblical evidence that God had a hand in writing in though (not that we would).

Kol ha Kovod to the woman who refused to move to the back of the bus.

Tanya, I am sorry you had to experience this disagreeable situation. A line must be drawn between a group's right to practice its religious beliefs and that group's ability to impose its beliefs on others.

from Netanya and invited me to visit there, sat in the back of buses and trains. It seemed odd at the time, but now I understand she was being polite in her native Israeli way. Ronit was a pharmacy tech in Netanya who visited her husband who was a patient at Sheba Medical Center where I was visiting. Learning the customs of politeness in an area to avoid trouble takes time. If I had been alone, I would have sat up front near the driver. But with Ronit she guided me to the back.

I'm a religious man, Shomer Shabat and Mitzvot, but I'm not a Taliban, and I can say only one think: BRAVO TANYA!!!

I use a mehadrin express bus all the time & women sit where ever they want & nobody ever says a word. This is a clear provocation by a small group of agitators from both sides.

The police took her side. She remained on the bus. The men took another bus. How much more would you like to prove you wrong.

DEMOCRACY, FREE. WE ARE JEWISH TOO, NOT TALIBANS, NOT FANATICS, NOT CRAZYS

that has a curtain down the middle and man sit on one side while women on the other. They get on at the front of the bus. So while they sit seperate and do not have to look at each other they are equal and women do not have to sit only in the back.

Thank you so much, Tanya Rosenblit, for standing your ground and not letting the mob or police intimidate you! You are very strong and very brave. I would have been reduced to a puddle of tears and fears. When you write, "...how come nobody realized until now that this is a social problem, and that its connection to religion is slim to non-existent?" I have to answer that most normal, thinking, secular minds can see clearly that segregation has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with social power. What religious man would admit that? "How could it be that an entire community chooses to humiliate its daughters, wives and sisters and nobody raises a hue and cry? Who believes that one could really choose to live a life of humiliation and exclusion?" I really believe that the women of these communities worship Tsniut above all things; it is the most spiritual and sacred value to them. And, unfortunately, being marginalized and segregated is, to them, the greatest expression of and tribute to Tsniut. I don't think they feel humiliated. I think they feel proud.

if this was the only way for Shalom between Jews. For Shalom every side should be able to make concessions. Secular also.

If they would have seen that she wasn't religious they wouldn't have bother her!!! Her attempt at dressing modestly to show respect is appauded but next time dont dress in something that your obviously NOT (totaly back or too religious). I live in a VERY religious neibourhood and I dress in a way that shows although Im religious I havent come to terms with everthing in the community and people treat me with a lot of respect. Dress acourding to your beliefs until your ready to move forward.

I've never understood the Rosa Parks thing. Why does it matter where you sit on a bus? Are buses really long in Israel, or something? And in 1960s America? Like Limo buses? Some kind of really long train-like bus that takes a long time to traverse? :)