But the haredi rally blocked the entrance to the city – Highway 1 from Tel Aviv was shut to private cars from 1 PM in the afternoon and public transportation in the city, including the light rail, was severely disrupted. How would those supporters of more jobs in Jerusalem who wanted to make the drive from out of town (or for that matter, to arrive by Egged from across town) make it to the party?

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The backers of JNext came up with a clever idea: they received permission to run two free buses from the park-and-ride lot near Ben-Gurion Airport up Highway 1 (along with the nearly 2,000 buses filled with haredim coming to their extravaganza). As the techies and VCs waited in line to enter one bus at the park-and-ride lot, a young haredi couple with a stroller and kids in tow tried to climb on board too. They look flustered when told where this particular vehicle was headed and turned back abruptly.

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Former leper hospital hosts hi-tech hipsters

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And rightly so: the JNext event would have been quite a study in contrasts for that couple. Where the ultra-Orthodox rally was swathed exclusively in black and white, JNext had decorated the new Hansen visual arts compound in spectacular color; spotlights bathed the former leper hospital in Jerusalem’s Talbiye neighborhood in pinks and greens and yellows and reds. The central courtyard, once home to some of the region’s most untouchables, w

Haredi Nation vs. Startup Nation: JNext and the irony of Sunday's protest