On Wednesday, April 20, a group of residents, most of them wearing crocheted kippot, gathered in Mea She'arim, bearing placards protesting segregation on Egged buses in the capital. According to the organizers, there were about 30 people. "Quite an impressive number," says city council member Rachel Azaria, the driving force behind the demonstration. The fact that some 2,500 haredi men were demonstrating for the opposite viewpoint on the other side of the street didn't seem to discourage Azaria at all. She believes that the small group of people who responded to her appeal represent a lot more than those who showed up and will eventually prevail.

An Egged bus rounding a corner.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

"We're representing the non-haredi residents - secular and modern Orthodox together" - remarks Azaria, who is strongly opposed to the haredi initiative of the mehadrin bus lines in the city.

Azaria says that the decision to demonstrate was out of concern that the haredi population, "which is a small minority of 20%, will keep on dictating to the rest of the residents how public transportation should look and function."

Azaria, herself a religious woman, adds that the whole issue of separation between men and women on buses is not clear and that according to some of the highest Orthodox rabbinical authorities (such as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein), there is absolutely no reason for the segregation.

As for the number of haredim demonstrating against the lack of mehadrin buses, there are also different opinions among themselves. "In terms of the haredi society, 2,500 people demonstrating is nothing," says Ya'acov Pashkuss, a former high-ranking official at the municipality and himself haredi. "This is not the highest issue on the haredi agenda these days. I would say it is an issue for just a part of the haredi society."

But the nuances within haredi society are much more profound than they appear from the outside. According to a source close to the organizers of the demonstration, one should read between the lines. "We didn't call it a demonstration at all," explains the source. "We use terms like 'atzeret za'aka' [assembly of appeal] for what you call 'demonstration'; but in that particular case, it was what we call 'a rally of prayer and awakening,' which is totally different. It was intended to awaken the population to be aware that pretty soon the special committee of the Transportation Ministry will issue its ruling regarding additional mehadrin lines, and these rabbis wanted to let the committee members know that we take it very seriously, that lots of people in haredi society are very concerned. Believe me, if it was a demonstration, it would have ended with lots of riots, agitation, eventually burning of garbage dumpsters and the like. Once they said what they had to say, these people - and I think they were more than 2,500 - dispersed quietly."

Mehadrin lines are Egged bus lines in which there is a separation between men and women. Usually the women sit in the back and men in the front. Usually these lines travel between Orthodox neighborhoods inside and outside Jerusalem and/or connect such neighborhoods directly with the Old City for those who want to reach the Western Wall without going through secular neighborhoods.

The man behind the initiative is a Vizhnitz Hassid and a city council member, Shlomo Rozenstein. Within haredi society, Rozenstein holds the "portfolio" of "purity in transportation" and is the liaison between Egged and the Transportation Ministry. There is no doubt that what he has accomplished in terms of his being the spokesperson for his constituency is impressive. Eight years ago Egged, afraid of losing the largest part of its consumers (haredim are the most frequent users of public transportation), agreed to allow a few lines that served exclusively haredi neighborhoods to be mehadrin buses. At the time it was not official, and every time a passenger or a journalist discovered it, Egged tried to deny it or just evaded the questions, sometimes alleging that it was the initiative of a particular driver.

The first line to become openly mehadrin was No. 3 which, in the late
1990s, connected Beit Israel and Sanhedria to the Western Wall. Then came the lines linking Jerusalem and Bnei Brak directly from the northern haredi neighborhoods. Today, there are about 50 mehadrin lines in the country, including a few that connect the capital with other haredi cities or neighborhoods in the center of the country (such as Bnei Brak, Petah Tikva, Ashdod). But according to other sources, the number is in fact far higher, as in many cases haredim try to force other passengers to use the bus like a mehadrin. The result depends on the attitude of the rest of the passengers; the drivers usually try to play it neutral.

Inside Jerusalem there are, according to Rozenstein, six mehadrin lines, the most recent one being No. 49a, which connects Neveh Ya'acov to the Old City and the Western Wall. According to haredi sources, the next line they might want to "convert" is No. 7, which connects Arnona and Talpiot through the city center to the northern haredi neighborhoods of Romema, Beit Israel and Ezrat Torah. But Rozenstein insists that "the haredim have no interest in lines that serve almost exclusively secular neighborhoods; so line 7 is by no means the next target."

WHETHER OR not mehadrin lines are the main issue on the haredi agenda, the issue is certainly becoming important for non-haredi residents of Jerusalem, who do not want to use the buses but feel that their rights are being denied by Egged. Besides the fact that many people - whether they are religious, traditional or secular - refuse to use the segregated buses, the fact remains that these lines, inside or outside the city, are cheaper and in some cases there is no alternative.

Since separation on public buses first appeared in the city, a few cases of verbal and even physical violence have been reported and the issue has even been taken to the High Court of Justice. One of the most famous cases was that of Orthodox and feminist writer Naomi Ragen, who refused to move to the back of a bus. She told a US radio station about what happened to her when a haredi man told her to move to the back of the bus. "I call these buses the Taliban lines. You know, they can call it whatever they want, but that to me is what they are."