Now it’s the Jews who ban women from driving

May 29, 2015 • 10:45 am

How are Jews like Muslims? Answer: in both cases some sects ban women from driving. We know about that ban in Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, but now one group of Jews—British Jews—have done the same thing. According to the Jewish Chronicle, a group of Orthodox Hasidic Jews has issued a Jewish fatwa against women driving. And the reasons are pretty much the same as those adduced in Saudi Arabia:

The British leaders of a major Chasidic sect have declared that women should not be allowed to drive.
In a letter sent out last week, Belz rabbis said that having female drivers goes against “the traditional rules of modesty in our camp” and against the norms of Chasidic institutions.

Not only that, but it’s now prohibited for mothers of this sect to drive their kids to school. If they do, the kids get kicked out!

. . . from August, children would be barred from their schools if their mothers drove them there.

According to the letter — which was signed by leaders from Belz educational institutions and endorsed by the group’s rabbis — there has been an increased incidence of “mothers of pupils who have started to drive” which has led to “great resentment among parents of pupils of our institutions”.

They said that the Belzer Rebbe in Israel, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, has advised them to introduce a policy of not allowing pupils to come to their schools if their mothers drive.

As far as I can see, these are not government-supported “faith schools,” but are still monitored by the government:

Compared with some of the most conservative Chasidic sects, Belz are seen as relatively moderate and while some Charedi schools in London have struggled with inspections, both their main boys and girls schools, Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass and Beis Malka, are rated “good” by Ofsted.

Dina Brawer, a member of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (now there’s a group with a tough job!) has correctly analyzed this as “the instinct behind such a draconian ban is one of power and control, of men over women. In this sense it is no different from the driving ban on women in Saudi Arabia. That it masquerades as a halachic imperative is shameful and disturbing.” But of course the women themselves, indoctrinated in their faith, defend this as a good thing:

In response to coverage of the story, the local Belz’s women’s organisation Neshei Belz issued a statement to say that they felt “extremely privileged and valued to be part of a community where the highest standards of refinement, morality and dignity are respected. We believe that driving a vehicle is a high pressured activity where our values may be compromised by exposure to selfishness, road-rage, bad language and other inappropriate behaviour.”

They added,”We do, however, understand that there are many who conduct lifestyles that are different to ours, and we do not, in any way, disrespect them or the decisions they make.”

Seriously, “refinement, morality, and dignity”? What age are we living in? This reminds me of Muslim women defending their hijabs, niqabs, and burqas. The worst part is punishing children whose mothers want to drive them to school. What if the men are busy in shul, davening and praying? If you’re indoctrinated in the faith, you’ll internalize its values.

Just think of all the contributions that the men and women of this faith would make if they’d give up their silly superstitions, stop the incessant ritual and prayer, and let women follow their dreams instead of the lives dictated to them from the moment they’re born.

73 thoughts on “Now it’s the Jews who ban women from driving”

  3. Driving is one of the common human activities par excellence in which one relies on, and every single second has evidence of, self-interested altruism. As drivers we all assume that the other driver in his/her 60 m.p.h. missile will stick to the rules of the road and not attempt to kill us. Road rage etc aside, it’s an amazing example of human solidarity and care for complete strangers. x

    2. On the other hand, while I was having a smoke with the painter this lunch time (waiting for the first coat to be dry enough for the second coat), we were discussing the designed awkwardness of the roads in this area. I pointed out that as recently as 1950, no-one who was designing mass housing expected or one second that every house would have a car (which needed parking), and I posited that in 2050 it would similarly be a rarity for a random private house to own a vehicle (which needed parking.

      1. In my suburb of Birmingham, England, in a street of terraced houses dating from about 1905, there is one house with an original internal garage. I am told that it is the first house in Brum to have that feature and it may be the first of its kind in the UK.

        The problem is that the garage is only about 6 feet wide, as cars then were more Taylor Swift than Demis Roussos. You could just about drive a modern car into that garage, but there is no chance that you could open the doors to get out. x

  6. “. . . Neshei Belz issued a statement to say that they felt “extremely privileged and valued to be part of a community where the highest standards of refinement, morality and dignity are respected.”

    That is nauseating.

    “They added,”We do, however, understand that there are many who conduct lifestyles that are different to ours, and we do not, in any way, disrespect them or the decisions they make.””

    I seriously doubt you really feel that way. In any case I can not, in good conscience, extend you the same courtesy. The traditions and values that have created this behavior are highly unethical and damaging. Courtesy at the expense of ethics and real damage to real people is not something to be proud of, or something that should be encouraged.

  8. Oh, those poor women. They can’t even control their own road-rage and profanity.

    What use is religion if it leaves you such a weak and helpless person?

    1. What use is religion if it leaves you such a weak and helpless person?

      You are clearly not a manipulative exploitative power-hungry priest. If you were, you’d understand the answer to your question.

  9. “We believe that driving a vehicle is a high pressured activity where our values may be compromised by exposure to selfishness, road-rage, bad language and other inappropriate behaviour.”

    – Yes, we all know that women have this problem with their emotions, being the silly, shallow creatures that they are! They should stay home and bear children, as the “pressures” of the modern world might prove to be too much for their frail minds.

    Excuse me, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit…..

    1. The reasoning is bizarre in justifying this attitude towards women only. Why don’t we just stop everyone from driving? Or working so much? That would reduce the value-compromising pressure of a lot of people. 😛

    2. Seems to me it’s the men that are so susceptible to road rage and competitive driving behaviour, that the rabbis ought to be encouraging the women to do all the driving, all the time.

  11. A “Jewish fatwa.” Is this really a thing, or is it a figure of speech?

    1. A figure of speech, stolen from the real Muslim fatwa which became a new word in everyone’s vocabulary the day one (or more) was/were issued against Salman Rushdie.

  12. Once again male religious leaders rule, and women and children suffer. To make this rule, the rabbis have to think of women as less than men. In reality, men who suppress women are scared of them – that’s why they need to assert power and conttol.

    I’ve heard of a town in the north-east US with a high conservative Jewish population where no one ever sees women driving because it’s considered unacceptable there. Can’t remember it’s name off hand.

    2. Was it Kiryas Yoel, New York? I remember reading an article about it a few years back. It’s so isolated (culturally, not geographically), the people there grow up speaking Yiddish as their first language.

  13. Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, Nicky Morgan, said: “This is completely unacceptable in modern Britain.

    “If schools do not actively promote the principle of respect for other people they are breaching the independent school standards.

    “Where we are made aware of such breaches we will investigate and take any necessary action to address the situation.”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32935767

  14. SOOO many things to say about this, but it looks like everyone above already has. Except to wonder why the Rule Makers couldn’t just create some post-expedition mikvah for these poor women, to expunge them of their sin.

    The (Hasidic)state totters.

  15. I once read an article on the radicalization of young British Muslim men. The writer said that their practice and attitudes towards Islam — with its mandates to memorize scripture and its prohibitions on things like alcohol — were for the most part lukewarm … until it got to controlling women. The ability to be able to tell your mother, sisters, and girlfriends what they can and cannot do and be listened to and obeyed seemed to be the most vivid and appealing benefit of becoming a devout Muslim for young, working class males. It’s automatic status AND ‘manhood.’ You’re bossing around family members while your nonmuslim cohorts are getting chewed out.

    … they felt “extremely privileged and valued to be part of a community where the highest standards of refinement, morality and dignity are respected… We do, however, understand that there are many who conduct lifestyles that are different to ours, and we do not, in any way, disrespect them or the decisions they make.”

    Ha ha. Passive aggressive much?

    1. “The ability to be able to tell your mother, sisters, and girlfriends what they can and cannot do and be listened to and obeyed seemed to be the most vivid and appealing benefit of becoming a devout Muslim for young, working class males.”

      Ick. Just ick.

      1. I can only hope (yet, not believe) that this was actually a passive-aggressive manipulation on the part of the women to, well, get some power back, as it were, by making the men be their chauffeurs all the time.

        I recall my ex-husband making sure to do poorly, with lots of mistakes, anything he didn’t want to have to do around the house, so that I would be compelled to go after him and make things right. That is, until I realized what he was doing. Apparently, this is a marriage manipulation seen among quite a few American couples. If the Jewish women of that subsect of the subsect of the subsect of orthodox women has decided on a similar ploy, more power to them.

        1. Really?

          I tend to assume the opposite view – “Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence”. 😉

          1. It’s called “creative incompetence” and is a well known phenomenon amongst both genders. “But you’re so much better at it than I am” they say. “Then you need the practice” say I.

    2. So these guys unilaterally decided they were going to become little dictators and their women let them get away with it?

      That’s just wrong.

      I couldn’t do it. I mean, quite aside from the fact that my wife would kick me out if I tried it, good on her, I just personally couldn’t bring myself to do it. It would be so self-serving and hypocritical.

    1. PCC *never* criticizes kittehs!

      I, however, am strong enough to stand up to the little rugrats.

      I just had a conversation with my kitty, as she sat on my lap.

      So I say to my kitty
      “You’re a bad cat”
      And then I say
      “But bad kitties are the only type of kitty that exists”

      Then she ditched me:(

  17. So do they discriminate against women, and only allow male employees at that school, and if not how do women get there?

  18. “We believe that driving a vehicle is a high pressured activity where our values may be compromised by exposure to selfishness, road-rage, bad language and other inappropriate behaviour.”

    Well if those women can’t handle that then I wouldn’t want them on the road!

    (Note that I think women can be as competent as men and I’m happy to see competent drivers on the road. Women like Michele Mouton for example).

    1. By the way that goes for the men too. If they can’t handle it…

      Which raises the question, if driving threatens their values so much, howcome they’re allowed to drive…?

      Admittedly cars were only invented in the 1900’s, so they’ve about 20 centuries of catching up to do.

  19. I wasn’t aware of this happening in other countries, but in Israel, there’s a sort of competition between ultra-orthodox groups on who is more extreme (I need help with English here – they take on themselves more and more humrot). This is a race to the bottom and they practically invent new rules to demonstrate their devotion to religion.
    This is a sad and disturbing processes.

    1. This is a manifestation of the same phenomenon that motivates fanaticism in ANY religion, as laid out by William James over one hundred years ago: it is the “worship of worship”; a devotion to devotion itself in which the believer perceives that the more extreme the actions taken in submitting to the “will” of his God (dietary, dress, and behavioral proscriptions), together with a spirited defense against any perceived “slights” to his God, the more “street-cred” the believer gains as to his purity and sincerity (which he no doubt imagines will be richly rewarded later). These run the gamut from the absurd (Amish refusing to use zippers, yet perfectly willing to power their cabinet shop with a stationary diesel engine; Orthodox Jews using high tech “random control” devices to avoid having to push a button on the Sabbath) to the horrific (self mutilation and self-crucifixion by Catholics in the Philippines around Easter; self-mutilation by Shiah Muslims on the anniversary of their founder’s death), which culminates in people being beheaded, stoned, and burned alive because of imagined affronts to the deity and its “laws”. Of course, they believe that this establishment of their status as a “true believer” is so important that they are entirely justified in not practicing the very same compassion and mercy they ascribe to their God.

      1. Yeah, I largely agree.
        But many people in Israel are under the impression that “our” ultra-orthodox are more extreme than those in other countries.

      1. And hands cut off, and women stoned to death, and female genital mutilation? And this is all just for starters.

        Judaism only looks like Christianity and Islam to Christians who want to conflate all three and spread blame equally — that is, shift the blame off Christianity to Islam and Judaism. I’ve seen far too much of this in America. My first tip off was when I approached a rabbi for help, after turning away from god, and he, who taught part of the comparative religions course at my college, explained that the common description of god, subtly inculcated in all my years of public school, was a Christian concept and not at all the Jewish one. He specifically referred to the white bearded old man on a thrown in heaven and the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-merciful bit. Obviously, god isn’t all of all of those things.

        Granted,this allowed me to feel agnostic for the next 30 years or so, but after all those years, no proof of god showed, and my current rabbi, a Chasidic Jew in the Chabad branch, took my change to atheism in stride.

        What do Muslims do to apostates? What do Christians do? Jews? We accept apostacy, because it makes sense, and we continue what sense of community we are comfortable sharing.

        1. Not some important issue with what you say, but I am ready to bet that an image of a white bearded God is common among the less sophisticated Israeli Jews (well, “less sophisticated”, for the idea of any image of God is extremely unjewish, so to speak), without any significant exposure to Christian ideas.

          2. “Children of such immigrants” are typically not exposed to Christian culture more than second generation Israelis. So this is irrelevant.
            But even among Jewish immigrants I don’t think that there is a difference in this regard from other Israelis.

          3. Interesting. I didn’t realize the code words and school prayers and other such indoctrinations for what they were until many decades later. Maybe there’s some influence we’re missing?

          4. There is SOME influence. Of course, every educated Israeli is familiar with famous works of art such as Michelangelo’s.
            But most children here hardly meet any gentile except when they travel abroad, so it’s hard to see a significant Christian influence on how native Israelis imagine God.

          5. Yes, Golan, it’s tempting to think of a deeply cynical Machiavellian member of the Judaic priestly caste 2,500 years ago, possibly a Cohen, who thought that belief in belief was a good thing for the stability of the state. So that he could be perfectly happy with the invisibility of Yahweh in the Holy of Holies. Which to his sceptical mind would look a lot like YHWH’s non-existence. He could live with that as long as he received his first fruits.

            So aniconism would win out against the grassroots house-gods and decorative sculptures of Yahweh and Asherah which litter Syro-Palestinian archaeology.

            I wonder how early Christianity figurative art split from its aniconic Jewish roots. Jesus’ ethnarch Herod Antipas unwisely decorated his palaces with eagles: they were destroyed as anti-Jewish during the uprising of 66-74 CE. Coins minted in Jerusalem during the revolt were again aniconic. The representation of a human or animal form was unclean.

            Yet by, I think, the 2nd century, Christians were signalling their presence by pictures of fish. And by the 3rd century the Christian God looked a lot like the Roman deity Sol Invictus – an updated Ancient of Days – and a lot like how we view Zeus. And, no doubt, from which developed the saintly Christian halo.

            But there you have it: God as Daniel’s Old Man, Roman Jove and Christian plagiarism. Judaism and Islam wouldn’t play that game. x

          6. I have great interest in archaeology and I cannot recall ever seeing any ancient sculpture of Jehovah. I will appreciate it if you can direct me to anything about this (this isn’t a challenge. I am genuinely curious about this).
            Of course, there are many of other local deities, and the bible itself is full of descriptions of Israelites worshiping them.
            I doubt if there is any way to tell anything interesting about the origins of the idea of a faceless God and prefer to avoid wild guesses, which are likely to be as good as any other.

          7. Golan, for Syro-Palestinian archaeology of figurines of Yahweh and Asherah (mainly the latter), see Syro-Palestinian archaeologists Finkelstein and Silverman, ‘The Bible Unearthed’, debunkers extraordinaire. And also

            en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah

            and look at the ‘In Israel and Judah’ section. x

          8. I have seen many Asherah figurines and images and sculptures of other deities (Israeli museums are full of them and some private collectors have them too), but none of Yahweh (it’s not how it’s written in bibles in Hebrew, but I give up 🙂 ). So only this is the novelty for me. I will have to look into this. I guess I will start with the sources the wikipedia links to.

          9. Golan, you say, “I doubt if there is any way to tell anything interesting about the origins of the idea of a faceless God…”

            Well, it tells us one thing. That the writer of Genesis 1:27, in which God created man in his own image, was different from the writer who propounded God’s invisibility in the Temple. This is evidently a completely different world-view. x

          10. I have never suggested otherwise.
            I am not trying to defend Judaism here (I am as godless as one can be).
            To those who are unfamiliar with traditional Jewish sources, it may be interesting that they noticed this problem very early in Jewish history and offered solutions (unconvincing in my opinion).
            Anyway, what you say still does not answer the question about the origins of this idea. At best, we know that until some point Israelites imagines God and at from some point, they stopped doing that.

          11. No, I’ve never seen, as far as I recall, an explanation of the intellectual origins of a faceless god. You’d have to do a comparative mythologies search for a start off. I’d hesitatingly suggest that it may have something to do with the transition from polytheism to monolatry to monotheism. x

        2. Your rabbi might have been right about the common Christian conception of God, doc, but the Ancient of Days – God as a white-haired old man – is first mentioned in Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. God as Darwin, James Randi and Dan Dennett all rolled into one (at least physically) is a Jewish idea. x

          1. “God as Darwin, James Randi and Dan Dennett all rolled into one” made me smile. What a beautiful thought! I guess, as long as God is imaginary, we can imagine any way we want.

        1. The easy retort would be to ask you to show me any credible evidence for people who were killed by Jews on religious grounds in the 2,000 before that.
          A serious answer would be that It’s a useless measure to compare Judaism with Islam today. It’s the same idiotic shtick of Muslim apologetic who bring up the crusades to show how Christians are just as bad as Muslims.
          No, they are not as bad. More people are killed in a typical month in the name of Islam than in the name of all other religions combined in a decade. What was a millennium or two ago is irrelevant to judge people’s behavior in our time.

        2. Marella, while we are at it, shall we look into all the deaths due to colonialism by European countries, believing God was with them, each of them, even against the other? Shall we look into the massacre of native people by Americans expanding westward, again believing it was God’s will? At least those significant numbers of killings were within the last half century, and none of them was Judaism-based.

          1. I didn’t mean to compare the effects of the two religions so much as their tenets. The food restrictions, the oppression of women, and general backwardness seem to me to be very similar. Hence the comment about the previous 2000 years, when they had the power to murder their neighbours but the thousand they did not hesitate to do so. The evolution of Islam in the middle east after the arrival of the Arabs also supports this hypothesis.

    1. Very funny article until you realize that the author is serious. Why is Jewish exegesis always funnier than Islamic apologetics? I may be hopelessly optimistic but I invariably detect a dry undertow of incongruous irony in modern pesharim. ‘Yes, it is absurd and we don’t really mean this.’ x

      1. I guess that the main reason is that Jews don’t kill over religion (while death penalty exists in Jewish law, since at least the first century, requirements were set which made it nearly impracticable).

  25. Hallelujah! The schools have lost and are backing down, with the usual oleaginous exculpation and Dinesh d’Souza-like inability to recognize their own guilt.

    “The headteacher sent out the letter on behalf of the spiritual heads of the community, who had not taken into account the implications of such a policy,” said Ahron Klein, the chief exec of the 2 schools involved.

    Cockney translation: we got our clarses kicked by Universal Derision.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/05/ultra-orthodox-jewish-schools-drop-ban-on-mothers-driving

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