(In case you’re not aware, shul means synagogue in everyday speech — common at least to English-speaking Jews as far as I know, if not more.)
I’m back from the trip! I’ll be posting a few things about the trip, the countries I visited and things that came to mind over the next few weeks — in 11 weeks I had a LOT of bloggable experiences. But it’ll be interspersed with unrelated stuff as well since I’m not aiming to make this a travel blog.
Still catching up on errands so today’s post will be quick. Below is a very rough and massaged reconstruction of a conversation I had with my cousin in Israel during the trip. We were planning to go somewhere and she explained to me a bit about the Israeli bus system where some parts of the country are serviced by government lines but most is through private companies.
ME: So out of interest, what about those buses I’ve been hearing about in religious neighbourhoods where segregated seating is enforced?
COUSIN: Yeah, you have to sit separately [NOTE: women at the back --duh!] or there’d be problems.
ME: What I meant is are those segregated lines within the private companies’ service area?
COUSIN: Oh no, they’re also government lines.
ME: But…but…what do you mean government lines?
COUSIN: They’re run by the government.
ME: But how can the government allow something like this, for the Hareidi commuters to just dictate the bus arrangement?
COUSIN: What do you mean?
ME: Well if it’s a private company you can understand that but they don’t own the government bus lines!
COUSIN: You know there are Hareidi neighbourhoods where the streets have a mechitzah down the middle to have separate sides of the street for men and women. They don’t own the public streets either, do they?
ME: But…but…no, they don’t…But if it’s a government bus who enforces the segregated seating? The bus driver?
COUSIN: The other passengers.
ME: But if you don’t follow this?
COUSIN: It’s just not done. I mean you’ll get some looks and they’ll ask you to move.
ME: Or beat you up for refusing to move!
I was aware of the problem and the incidents of women being assaulted by mobs on the bus. But it didn’t even occur to me that on top of all that, this could happen on a government bus line. This was the new, shocking fact. Australia’s separation of religion and state is by no means complete but it’s so far advanced compared to Israel’s that such a scenario seemed almost physically impossible to my brain until I was told.
My cousin was not supporting the situation by any means. But she was so used to it, it was so normal, that her level of indignation wasn’t anywhere near mine. Familiarity is a great way of stopping change because even those opposed to a practice will often acclimatise and recalibrate their own boundaries of what’s “really” unacceptable vs what’s merely “bad”.
Is there any practice in your country that you think you’ve become desensitised to where you almost have to be an outsider to get appropriately outraged?
4 comments ↓
For Australia one contender is casual racism — I think there’s probably more it than people from other similarly-placed countries might expect and that similar ideas or actions don’t get the same reaction here. Of course there are countries where it’s much stronger so Australians might have similar reactions there as others might in Australia.
Hi Michael, looks like you’re back from your journeys. Welcome back then.
In response to your very astute question,
Is there any practice in your country that you think you’ve become desensitised to where you almost have to be an outsider to get appropriately outraged?
I think I have mentioned on this forum (besides my blog) the situation in Greece regarding religion. There is no problem with segregation of men and women, but there is a problem with the omnipresence of all religious symbols and ceremonies everywhere in public life. Indeed, it is an accepted fact, an unquestioned practice, that a public official, say, must take a religious oath. See, e.g., this BBC article on the inauguration of the new interim PM of Greece. Or look at this video regarding prayers in public schools. Let me also point out the presence of icons in Greek courts of law.
These things are such commonplace in Greece that you have to be an outsider to spot them and talk about them. In Greece they are accepted, not because everyone is religious, but because they represent a de facto state of affairs. Unquestionable. Trying to argue about these in Greece is a taboo. You are, most of the time, classified as a peculiar person if you raise some of this issues.
Ooops, sorry for boldface. I forgot to close fonts after “have to”.
UK – monarchy. It is so entrenched that people actively defend it against any attack and view it as a positive.
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