Religious Jews were denied control over the Land of Israel, then over religious neighborhoods; and now their right to build closed neighborhoods for themselves is contested, too.

In reference to the segregation issue, he is widely quoted as saying that coercion contradicts the letter and spirit of the Torah. We fail to see how it can be so when coercion is mandated throughout Torah in the most plain language. Jews must execute transgressors of Shabbat, for example, and numerous other religious offenders. Fine, Rabbi Ovadia may be able to rely upon the standard “no-Sanhedrin” argument against execution. But that argument certainly does not rule out milder coercion. Indeed, it is a rabbinic tenet that Jews may be bribed and coerced into observing our religion.

Of course she knew that the bus was segregated, and she never needed the ride in the first place. Predictably, the haredim objected, bad-mouthed her with all the correct words—and were arrested on the spot.

Of course gender segregation and extreme modesty are not required by Torah Judaism, but the haredim live compactly in Beit Shemesh, and if they want to set such rules for themselves and their children, that is entirely up to them, and there is nothing antisocial about that.

With the Iranian threat looming, the Muslim Brotherhood taking over country after country, and our government surrendering the state to Arabs and Africans, the ultra-leftists have nothing more important to do than to bug religious Jews.

Yes, and rightly so. The exceptional cases are the most problematic ones. They include illegal workers, tourists, gentiles who married Jews abroad, and similar categories of applicants who have every economic, familial, or other non-religious reason to falsify their conversion.

The PA, which subsists on Israeli money and bayonets, was especially harsh in its condemnation.

The comparison is outright wrong. In a Jewish state, Torah study is more important than other studies, so the disparity is entirely justifiable. A better question is whether such subsidies are indeed right. In our opinion they may not be, because every Jew has to work for living. But of course this is not the case in the real world: very rich Jews do not really work very hard to earn their income; Arabs and many types of Jewish spongers enjoy subsidies; and even African illegals live at the state’s expense.

At the same time, Jewish religious students do a great service to our society by propagating knowledge of the Torah and by bringing up great numbers of children. Thus, even though they should be deprived of subsidies, they must be the last segment of the population to lose that income.

Haredim have accepted the gross desecration of the entire Land of Israel: from Arab terrorists in East Jerusalem to Jewish homosexuals in its central districts, but they want a small area for themselves where they can live according to their ancient laws. That much they received even under the Ottoman government. Naturally, therefore, the haredim try to push provocative immodesty from their midst.

Even gated communities in the United States are allowed to set their standards of appearance, and some such standards exist in Israel—for example, the prohibition of public nudity. It is not unreasonable, then, for a closed group such as the haredim to have its own standards.

Of course, no Arab goes to jail for simply participating in public disturbances.

But we fail to see anything in the halacha which bars women from participating in the appointment of such judges if they are not going to be appointed by fellow rabbis. And a healthy dose of feminist influence could make the rabbis somewhat more transparent on divorce issues.

But are their demands unreasonable? They want the bookstore to drop English titles—which are mostly intended for tourists—because for years local residents have wanted tourists out of their neighborhood. And that makes sense: the neighborhood is virtually closed, almost hundred percent haredim. They have certain standards of modesty which visiting tourists grossly violate. Residents also object to being looked at like animals in a zoo.

Do religious Jews have the right to a gated community?