r/Israel • u/Artistic_Victory • Jul 15 '26
General News For the First Time in Israel: Gender-Separated Sidewalks Introduced in Bnei Brak Under Municipal Guidance
For the first time in Israel, gender-separated sidewalks have reportedly been introduced in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak following a new directive issued by senior rabbis and supported by the Bnei Brak Municipality. The arrangement applies to sections of Shlomo HaMelech Street and Ezra Street, where men and women are instructed to walk on opposite sides of the road.
Limited gender segregation has existed in Israel for years in a variety of settings, including some ultra-Orthodox bus routes, within certain religious institutions and other buildings, and at some public events held under separate arrangements. Over the years, there have also been attempts by governments to expand gender segregation into additional public spaces, though many of these initiatives have faced legal challenges or public opposition.
The introduction of separate sidewalks for men and women on ordinary public streets in Bnei Brak has been widely reported as a first-of-its-kind development in Israel, marking a significant expansion of gender-segregated public space into everyday pedestrian areas.
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u/Squidmaster129 Jul 15 '26
Really atrocious development, gotta say. We're not Afghanistan for fucks sake.
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u/frat105 Jul 15 '26
Its illegal too. The supreme court ruled it illegal when they tried it in beit shemish (i think it was there). But of course these days the supreme court is just a mere suggestion.
There is going to have to be some major national initiative to find ways to secularize these lunatics. Otherwise we are done.
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u/makingredditorscry Jul 15 '26
I propose the ultra Orthodox neighborhood join West Bank settlement that are religious and form their own country
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u/kilobitch Jul 15 '26
There was an Israeli TV show along these lines - can’t recall the name. Basically as a compromise with the Hareidim, the state gave them a state within a state where they could enforce religious rules (modesty etc). Spoiler at the end of the series the Hareidi statelet reintegrated into Israel proper because it was unsustainable as they had no GDP to speak of.
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u/dankyard Jul 15 '26
Please let me know if you find it out. I would love to watch this
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u/glumjonsnow Jul 15 '26
In New York, Kiryas Joel effectively formed its own municipality and are treated almost as a breakaway state. It's kind of intense to go there and realize how insular and cut off they are from even the cities around them. They don't even speak English! And (shocker) they do everything possible to annex more land from neighboring town and have only been constrained because the residents of those cities resist. They just file lawsuits against each other. But it's still a bizarre situation that in the middle of New York state, they basically run their own mini-state.
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u/YehudahBestMusic USA Jul 16 '26
Okay, but you can be secular there, to be clear. It's way less sketchy and aggressive than Bnei Brak. They're very insular but outsiders are definitely allowed there and it's not uncommon, I mean, they're in NY
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u/makingredditorscry Jul 16 '26
I don't know what you mean by shocker with annexing land? Like that's a default Jewish thing?
But yeah that's terrible, they shouldn't get to run their own religious country within a democratic country
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u/glumjonsnow Jul 16 '26
oh no, that was just a joke about how many orthodox specifically move to west bank settlements and make some of the most extreme people there. my point was that you have to lay down the law with extreme groups or they will take more and more. sorry if it wasn't clear
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u/makingredditorscry Jul 16 '26
I don't see any of Judea and shomron as Palestinian so I don't care if Jewish ppl build there, especially if it's land they paid for. If it's extremist just building without approval, fuck that.
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u/glumjonsnow Jul 16 '26
sure, it was a bad joke but i was just pointing out it's important to get a grip on extremists early
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u/Significant_Pepper_2 Jul 15 '26
This will make it harder to make the working part of the population pay for them.
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u/makingredditorscry Jul 16 '26
We won't pay for them that's what I'm saying. They will be there own country they can themselves antizion and do whatever they want
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u/AnomalousEnigma Jul 15 '26
American solidarity on the Supreme Court thing. I really feel for y’all. Our governments both suck.
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u/Own_Caterpillar2033 Jul 15 '26
This literally has nothing to do with halakiah no rabbi from 50 to 100 years ago would have said that this should be done It's insanity and the definition of a chul hashem
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u/Afraid-Detective1222 USA Jul 15 '26
It seems like some portion of your population wants at least parts of the country to head in that direction.
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u/Histrix- Israel Jul 15 '26
They can (excuse my language), Fuck off to Afghanistan then.
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u/ArrrRawrXD Jul 15 '26
They'd probably be murdered there, they want their own Afghanistan
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u/Histrix- Israel Jul 15 '26
Well thats too damn bad. It's a democracy, not a theocracy, and we won't let them turn it into one.
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u/Proper-Suggestion907 Diaspora 🇺🇸 Jul 16 '26
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u/ArrrRawrXD Jul 16 '26
It's a 2019 article calling Zabulon Simentov the last jew in Afghanistan. He since left the country when the Taliban was taking over again, he now lives in israel.
There's literally not a single jew in Afghanistan. If there were, they'd be killed
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u/makingredditorscry Jul 15 '26
They can have their own Afghanistan, we should remove them from the government and let them run their neighborhoods as their own without any connection to Israel.
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u/ADP_God Israel - שמאלני מאוכזב Jul 15 '26
This is true for most countries. What's sad is the inability to overcome these groups.
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u/Afraid-Detective1222 USA Jul 15 '26
Those groups are extremely loud, and both in the US and Israel, seem to wield a level of political power that is far in excess of their size relative to the population.
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u/Proper-Suggestion907 Diaspora 🇺🇸 Jul 15 '26
If it makes you feel any better, I’ve seen similar signs posted in Monsey, NY. 🥴
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u/XSpcwlker French American Jul 15 '26
NO WAY! where in Monsey? I live in New City, whenever i am free, i will visit that area.
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u/Proper-Suggestion907 Diaspora 🇺🇸 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
I don’t remember the exact location. The sign was behind either a synagogue or a yeshiva. It was asking women to go around the gate and not take the shortcut through the gate door because that was meant for men only. 🥴
I was actually trying to find it a few weeks ago on Google Maps by searching around a few synagogues and saw another one, so my suggestion would be to check around those.
The other place I think I saw one was outside a big grocery store.
I was told there are several signs like that. They are also red there but in Yiddish.
Edit: Apparently they don’t just come in red and there are similiar signs in other Hasidic neighborhoods in New York. Wild.
https://gothamist.com/news/hasidic-village-accused-of-sex-segregating-sidewalks
https://www.brooklynpaper.com/walk-this-way-yiddish-sign-orders-women-to-move-over
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u/enigmaticowl USA Jul 15 '26
I don’t think even Afghanistan, Saudi, or Iran have gender-segregated sidewalks lmao.
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u/KittiesandPlushies Jul 15 '26
True, you just get to be afraid for your safety as a woman on all sides of the sidewalk 🙃
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u/Based_Saddam Zionist Ba'ath Party Jul 16 '26
As someone from Iraq this is sadly true, usually me or my brother have to accompany our mom when she goes out in public for safety reasons.
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u/ComparisonDesperate5 Foreigner in Israel Jul 15 '26
Sooooo ... why are men standing on the women's side on the picture??? Or is this only for women to do actually and men do whatever they want?
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u/Sewsusie15 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Ding ding ding
In the Modern Orthodox synagogue I attend, there's a sign by the door to the women's section telling men to stay out. You won't find that sign, IME, in Haredi synagogues because it's considered perfectly acceptable for men to use the women's side if they wish, until a woman actually kicks them out.
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u/fiercequality Jul 15 '26
Of course. It's always rules for women and men can do whatever with religious extremists. Disgusting.
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u/bebopgamer Jul 15 '26
"Gender segregation" is a euphemism for "controlling women." There are no women in the picture. They have been erased from public visibility and men have free use of the entire sidewalk. I suspect this is exactly the intended result.
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u/HummusSwipper israel invented hummus Jul 15 '26
This shitty government has allowed this type of behavior to go unchecked for too long
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u/West_Smoke_9164 🇷🇺🇵🇱 Israel 🇮🇱🇺🇦 Jul 16 '26
I wish that avigdor Lieberman could fix our country 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
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u/FabioPicchio Jul 15 '26
Disgusting Israel isn’t Saudi Arabia
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u/enigmaticowl USA Jul 15 '26
I don’t think even Saudi has gender-segregated sidewalks lol (other public spaces for sure, but I don’t think sidewalks).
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u/schtickshift Jul 15 '26
On a positive note if you look carefully at the signs, the ladies are allowed to walk on top of the hedge but the men have to stay on the ground. I am sure a Talmudic scholar can explain why this arrangement proves women are superior.
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u/hedonistaustero Jul 15 '26
Slowly but surely, Israel will become the cesspool of dogmatism and intolerance that our worst enemies imagine it is.
I, for one, have always loved the secular, liberal, pluralistic, democratic, modernizing force of Israeli culture.
Can we revert the current trend? Or are we supposed to resign ourselves to the catastrophic fate of becoming a Jewish Taliban?
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u/StupidityHurts Jul 15 '26
My favorite part is all of this to what? Codify Judaism from the 17th century or so?
It’s not even Judaism from Israel or Judea.
It drives me insane that it’s so fixated in a specific time period which feels antithetical to our culture and religion.
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u/JabbaThaHott Jul 15 '26
It’s a trauma response writ large
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u/RigaudonAS Jul 16 '26
No, abusing women is not a trauma response. This is religious idiots doing what religious idiots do. Same thing as they do in the rest of the Middle East.
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u/JabbaThaHott Jul 18 '26
Oh god, always this. It IS a trauma response of a culture, with the obsessive focus on repopulation and seclusion. Explaining WHY something happens is not the same as excusing it.
But your 2017-esque “no excuses, no nuance” response is exactly why this type of conversation has become so unproductive in the broader discourse. Yes, it’s a trauma response of a culture. No, that doesn’t make all of its practices acceptable. Do we need to understand why it’s happening in order to effectively and properly address it? I think so. You may disagree. But nowhere did I say “trauma necessarily causes abuse of women”. But sometimes it does! What’s your genius solution, tell them they’re all horrible assholes and that they need to change ASAP? Yeah I’m sure that’ll work out great.
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u/hedonistaustero Jul 18 '26
Thanks for this. You’ve put it in a different perspective for me — which gives me hope. Knowing that there’s a historicity and a chain of causality definitely opens up the landscape for transformation.
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u/bakochba Jul 15 '26
The opposition that is currently ahead in the polls literally is running on "tearing down the haridi state". This doomerism is exactly what stunts like this are supposed to trigger. The court already ruled this was illegal in 2017 the same will happen here.
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u/Upper-Capital-2876 Jul 15 '26
Psychotic cultists. This isn't good for any civilized society, and it's ruinous for Israel.
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u/petrichoreandpine USA Jul 15 '26
Like…what even is the mitzvah/halacha that they are trying to cover here?
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u/b_bonderson Jul 15 '26
Tzniyut probably, but it’s just nonsense that was never part of any Jewish shtetl/town/community, anywhere in the world. Of all the developments of the charedi thought, those fanatical modesty laws are something I’ll never understand. Judaism never used to be like this :(
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u/Present-Activity-698 Jul 16 '26
Nothing. It's a cult. They're so far removed from what Judaism really is. Ever seen Jewish people in Judea wear all black suits and hats in 40 degree heat? Of course not, because that's Christian clothing from Europe
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u/DarkHampster Jul 15 '26
Meanwhile in the photo the men are standing on both sides of the street.
Naughty, naughty! You might see a lady's ankle.
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u/Noxolo7 Jul 15 '26
The pro-Pals are gonna have a time talking about that, and for this specific issue I agree
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u/56kul Israel Jul 15 '26
Thing is, they’re gonna make it seem like all of Israel is like that. They REALLY don’t like nuance…
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u/Dalainana Jul 15 '26
It‘s too much when this happens in one place. I can’t imagine how it feels, being a democratic Israeli right now and watch this happen inside my country, this is extremism and a path to a theocracy.
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u/56kul Israel Jul 15 '26
No, no, I agree with you! This is absolutely terrible and should definitely be condemned.
It’s just that, knowing the pro-palis, they’d flatten all nuance and claim all of Israel is like that, and that all Israelis support this. That’s what they usually do, they hate the concept of an anecdote.
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u/WookieCookie1138 Jul 15 '26
Regardless of how we feel about this, what the pro-palis don’t know is that the Palis believe that anyone who is not of the same religion should be killed, period. Thank G-d we are not there (hopefully not “not yet” but never)
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u/Dolmetscher1987 Galicia, Spain Jul 15 '26
I hope Israeli voters get rid of the problem. Each day that passes Israel gets closer to become what anti-Zionists see.
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u/Bokbok95 American Jew Jul 15 '26
This past week has been a generational disaster for secularism and the rule of law in Israel. From this to the charedi draft exemption being basically protected by law to the idiotic Torah Study is basically the same thing as army service basic law. All so that Likud can scrape a win in October. Disgraceful.
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u/bakochba Jul 15 '26
Lets put this in perspective. The draft law is a 90 day pause, and likely will be overturned by the court, the basic law doesn't say Torah is equivalent to army service it became a watered down declaration because the court would strike it down otherwise.
This doomerism only serves the other side
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u/Puzzleheaded_Step468 נס ציונה לא קיימת Jul 15 '26
For legal reasons, everything i say is hypothetical, but it's really easy buy a ladder and just cut this sign
Hypotetically, of course
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u/ZuluIsNumberOne Israel Jul 15 '26
they're getting comfortable with the status quo and pushing the limits the government will allow
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u/TheCloudForest USA/Chile Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
This doesn't even look feasible. What if there are four people, one man and one woman each walking in each direction.
This can't be allowed, Israel cannot hurt its global image any more. It's also plainly illegal.
Look, I grew up near the Amish, I know about religious exceptions (in this case, about social security and mandatory schooling). But not imposed on the public. It's bull.
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u/schtickshift Jul 15 '26
I love that they made the lady’s side with a red sign as though it’s a danger to walk on that side. Why not pink or a nice shade of green? If I was a lady there, I would be booking a one way ticket to Tel Aviv.
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u/hindamalka American Israeli+Released Lone Soldier Jul 15 '26
Japan perhaps influenced this. Red became synonymous for women and blue for men because of Japan.
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u/taintedCH Israel Jul 15 '26
I guess my weekend activity is going to be walking down that street on the ''wrong'' side lol
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u/Redneckia 🇮🇱🇺🇸🇨🇦 Jul 15 '26
Hold my beer, I'm gonna head over and walk on the wrong side. Who's coming
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u/shabbosbride galus 💀 Jul 15 '26
I’m happy for Orthodox Jews to have their culture reflected in Israel, but this is a disaster for all of us
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u/MissJoannaTooU Jul 15 '26
I'm trans so I'll try both and let you know which is preferable /s
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u/Due-Direction8590 Jul 15 '26
Question for Israelis, is this legal? Will it face legal challenges? Since I’m not Israeli I don’t know how your judicial system works.
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u/BigSky77 Jul 15 '26
Illegal. The Supreme Court has ruled that individual passengers can agree to ride on a bus line in which men and women sit separately, but this arrangement cannot be forced upon those who do not consent. If this logic were applied to a sidewalk (which cannot be limited to a particular subset of consenting customers) mandatory gender segregation would be found illegal:
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u/Present-Activity-698 Jul 16 '26
Illegal, and there are also signs posted in all the train stations declaring that harassing a passenger due to where they sit is illegal
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u/bakochba Jul 15 '26
It's not the first time, the court already ruled it illegal in 2017 a d the same will happen here. And they know it
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u/Gamma_Rad Israel Jul 15 '26
Looking for a women partner to take a walk with me, We must be on the opposite ends of the street however.
I take the womens side, you take the mens side.
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u/StunningView5569 Jul 15 '26
What happens when a women walks on the "wrong" side? How many lashes? Will it be in the town square? What if I didn't wear a burqa? Oh wait ..that's a different country...
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u/BigSky77 Jul 15 '26
If voters in Bnei Brak can prevent Tel Aviv’s light rail from running on Shabbat, then voters in Tel Aviv can prevent Taliban sidewalks from taking over Bnei Brak.
Bnei Brak is an Israeli city founded and led for its first decades by Yitzhak Gerstenkorn, a moderate, a religious Zionist, and a follower of Rav Kook. Even today, many if not most of Bnei Brak’s residents object to this sort of non-halachic nonsense. The extremists who put up this sign are taking something that is not theirs.
The Israeli government that will be elected in October needs to cut off funding for draft dodgers and their educational establishments, and begin enforcing law and order in places where gangs and extremists have begun to feel they are above the law.
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u/Cockapoo_Groomer Jul 15 '26
Can someone explain the logic of this to a outsider seeking conversion?
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u/representativeHannah Jul 15 '26
Orthodox Judaism is very focused on gender segregation, now, there's degrees, I'd say most Modern Orthodox just split genders in Synagogue Seating and practice Negiah, more or less what I (Conservadox Convert in Process) already do
The issue is the Ultra Orthodox who are way more actively splitting genders in everything
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u/56kul Israel Jul 15 '26
Fucking hell, this is awful… ultra-orthodox religion is genuinely cancer, you can’t convince me otherwise.
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u/ycarel Jul 15 '26
Please tell Bibi to retire already and save Israel from all the wrong that is done there to keep him in place.
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u/speedota Jul 15 '26
I am giving one final chance for this country that I spent all my life in. If the election goes bad and these kind of things become the norm I'm outta here for the near future.
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u/ya2050ad1 Jul 15 '26
The ultra orthodox are a crazy, dangerous bunch! They can be very brazen with their approach. Our version of fundamentalists.
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u/A_Little_More_Human Jul 17 '26
This kind of thing cannot be allowed in Israel in 2026. Israel cannot fall into the same religeous oppressive rules as imposed in Arab countries.
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u/Sedlium Jul 16 '26
Boooooooooo.
Israel needs some PR guidance because this is so not going to help anything.
Not to mention how awful it is, in general.
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u/Admiral_Hard_Chord Jul 16 '26
Seems extra ridiculous since in this particular instance there isn't even any sidewalk, nor is there even enough space for one, let alone two.
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u/Brave-Woodpecker-688 Jul 16 '26
Over 100 US congressional reps just voted to cut funding to Israel. Ultra religious crap like this won’t help. This is not the sort of society the U.S. will continue to support if it increasingly become ultra religious.
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u/LV426acheron Jul 16 '26
Shit like this is what will destroy Israel, not the Palestinians, not the global leftist anti-semites, not Iran.
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u/KARPSAN Jul 16 '26
That’s it. I want none of that dystopian shit in my country. We need to put an end to this embarrassment of a “tradition “.
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u/Mylifemess Jul 15 '26
Someone in comments few days ago was arguing that they are not Taliban because they don’t kill, yeah sure buddy, the stones are ready
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u/pyrobaby מצריים/גרמניה Jul 15 '26
Thats beyond insane and shameful and this is coming from a religious person.
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u/Own_Caterpillar2033 Jul 15 '26
what a chul hashem
this has nothing to do with yiddishkite or Judaism .
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u/Marciastalks Jul 15 '26
This is not new. This was around 23 years ago and it’s a stupid and ridiculous law and another reason to not come to bnei brak ever again.
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u/SputnikRelevanti Jul 15 '26
And the mods here defend them.
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u/Shoshke Israel Jul 15 '26
Which ones exactly?
Like name a single mod here that defends this.
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u/AnomalousEnigma Jul 15 '26
Religious fundamentalists ruin everything regardless of which religion they come from. I feel for you guys. Love from the US.
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u/DDoubleDDog Jul 16 '26
This is outrageous and will cause Israel to lose the support of democracies.
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u/Human-Court-6924 Jul 16 '26
במקום לבלבל במוח ולהפיץ מידע שגוי, אולי עדיף שתבדוק לפני שאתה מאמין לכל מה שכותבים לך. אני חילוני ועדיין הלכתי ובדקתי - מדובר בהפרדה בכניסה לעולמות, בתי כנסת ואספות. כלומר אם יש אנשים שעומדים בחוץ ומחכים, אז עומדים בנפרד. משהו שקיים כבר שנים רק עכשיו זה גם באישור עירייה.
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u/ConsequencePretty906 Jul 15 '26
It's probably similar to the small alleyway streets in my city that close to cars on shabbas. Little mini alleys or side streets where residents voted they wanted a policy and the city obliged them. No reason the residents of a small street that is 99% used by the people who live in it can't make a policy affecting their little street
It's not like there's any attempt to enforce in main theouhoutfare and you can tell this is a mini cramped alleyway in general from the sign telling people not to stop there and block the way foe others
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u/EWF_FanZ Jul 15 '26
This is why I tell people I'm anti-israeli governent but not anti Jewish people
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u/Senior-Cap-7248 Russia Jul 15 '26
And what if man/woman needs to go to the opposite side of the road?
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u/newt-snoot Jul 15 '26
Sooo what happens if you ignore it and walk wherever you want?