The woman who earned the title “Israel’s Rosa Parks”, Tanya Rosenblit, is calling to bury the hatchet, seeking to bring the frum and chiloni communities together.

It was Rosenblit who boarded a mehadrin line heading to Yerushalayim in December 2010 and refused to move to the rear of the bus. The incident was given prominent media coverage, both in Israel and in other countries, prompting the analogy to Rose Parks, the black woman who in December 1955 refused to adhere to regulations on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

On her blog, Rosenblit speaks of the violence in Beit Shemesh, as well as between “the orthodox and the secular, the right-wing against the left-wing”. She explains “by attacking, one encounters resistance but kindness is irresistible”, calling on all sides to lay down their arms and make peace.

“These insights are not my own, they are written in the Torah and in the Jewish book of laws. I learned recently by very special people that what separates the Jewish religion from all other religions and philosophies in the world is that the Jewish religion strives for togetherness, the connection between people. Many Jewish laws talk about this connection from different aspects. If this so, how can it be that basic manners was so easily forgotten from the minds of those that claim to be G-d’s emissaries? Those that think that theirs is the only truth? How dare they stone a woman whose only crime was to hang commercial banners on the street or to bully an 8-year-old girl? This behavior mainly shows a lack of sanity and orientation, not to mention G-d.   “On the other hand, these days, the entire country is found in a war of religion and culture. The secular are using these cases to attack the chareidi culture; and the chareidi, out of self-defense and fear of strangers meddling in their way of life, use lies and manipulations to get back at them. Both sides are busy demonizing each other, but who benefits from it all?”

She continues her appeal for peace gestures, adding that last month she learned a great deal, referring to the chareidi world as “beautiful and diverse and it is a huge injustice to treat these radicals and extremists as their representers. The same way as it is a terrible injustice to take the bum and the floozy as the representors of the secular culture. We are one People, and we don’t have to accept upon ourselves the others’ way of life in order for us to love and respect them”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)