Ultra-Orthodox Teen Harasses Woman Who Refused To Sit at Back of Bus
Police reportedly have arrested a haredi Orthodox teen who harassed a woman for not sitting in the back of a bus.
Noa Kantman, 22, of Safed, said she was modestly dressed in a skirt when she boarded the Egged bus heading for Ashdod on Feb. 15 and sat in the seat next to the driver. Some haredi Orthodox men and boys also boarded the bus and, led by two of them, demanded that she sit in the back.
Kantman, who is modern Orthodox, was on her way to visit her sister who lives near Ashdod. The men yelled at Kantman and began praying in a loud manner, according to reports, while attempting to get her to move to the back of the bus. The men also made menacing moves toward her, causing her to call her sister and ask her to call the police, according to reports.
Police intercepted the bus at the entrance to Ashdod and boarded it, asking Kantman to point out the men who were menacing her. One of the haredi teens, 17, was taken into police custody, and later released on bail.
Israel’s Transportation Ministry maintains a voluntary segregation plan for public buses, under which riders may sit separately if they desire, but fellow passengers cannot be pressured to sit separately. The plan was approved by Israel’s Supreme Court.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO