Brooklyn Yiddish Signs Warning Women To Step Aside For Men Must Go, Parks Department Says

[brooklynite]

from the link:http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/10/brooklyn-yiddish-signs-warning-women-to-step-aside-for-men-must-go-parks-depar|New York Daily News"]:

City workers have removed signs warning women in a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn to step aside for men. But the Parks Department says the teardowns in South Williamsburg had nothing to do with the message itself; it's just illegal to post signs on street trees.

"We do not know who put up the signs," said Parks spokeswoman Trish Bertuccio.

The large signs started popping up in the neighborhood more than a week ago. They had a Yiddish message that translates as: "Precious Jewish daughter, please move to the side when a man approaches."

Neighborhood residents were annoyed the plastic signs, which were bolted into the wood, were taken away.

If God has decreed this, why do they need signs to remind people?

[MineralMan]

1. Oh, for pity's sake! This is obscene.

I can't even believe it, to tell you the truth. Screw religious bigots!

[msanthrope]

5. It's part of a larger 'modesty' campaign.

Apparently, the Lord Thy God is also against tank tops.

"“It is very respectful; it’s not ordering you to cross the street — it means, ‘Let him pass head on,’ ” one Hasidic man who declined to give his name told the Brooklyn Paper. “There are a lot of people on the street during the holidays, and this is a reminder to let men pass so they don’t go barging into a group of women.”

The signs, nailed to trees, were reportedly in violation of city law, and parks maintenance workers removed 16 signs on Bedford and Lee avenues between Marcy Avenue and Broadway in Brooklyn on Wednesday.

According to the report, the sign does not indicate who posted them, but sources told the Brooklyn Paper that they are part of a larger “modesty” campaign being carried out by a rabbinical group, including a June decree demanding that women not wear tank tops.

SNIP

“Sometimes a gentle reminder is needed to keep the neighborhood the way it should be and that Jewish values are supposed to be followed,” a Hasidic woman, who declined to give her name, told the Brooklyn Paper."

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/yiddish-sign-urges-precious-jewish-daughters-of-brooklyn-to-make-way-for-men-1.389028

[elleng]

8. 'let them pass so they don't go barging into a group of women!!!'

I'd laugh, if I could, at all these 'rules' 'protecting' women from them damn self-centered men!

[joeybee12]

14. Well then, if it's a concern, then put up signs telling men to step aside...

so they don't get run over by women.

[Sgent]

16. Actually

and even worse... this sign is to protect men from ritually unclean women.

In this fucked up interpretation of the religion, men are supposed to avoid contact with women who are having a period or have had one without the benefit of a milkvah. Since the man can't know without asking, they aren't supposed to touch women at all.

[elleng]

20. Right, even worse.

Haven't studied this, but didn't most of these 'rules' originate in 'dark ages' when little was known about stuff, like meat/milk meals when difficult to clean wooden implements used for dairy foods, hence icky stuff grew in them, which then contaminated meats???

[Sgent]

26. This rule as well as the meat/milk rule

is in Leviticus, and has been around long before the dark ages (400-1400 CE).

[elleng]

31. Nothing like the Bible,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=EvQqhkd--a0

[nichomachus]

32. The meat/milk rule was religious, not dietary

At the time this rule went into effect, the Israelites were in their nomadic stage. Since they had grazing animals, the different families were pretty spread out in the wilderness. Some of them were neighbors of the Canaanites. This brought two tempations, intermarriage and participation in Canaanite religious ceremonies, which could be kind of fun. The centerpiece of the Canaanite rituals was serving a young goat simmered in its mother's milk. So, if the Israelites were forbidden to eat meat and milk together, they couldn't participate.

[MountainLaurel]

25. This makes me want

To fling used menstrual pad at them and watch them skitter like roaches.

[Wind Dancer]

35. LOL!

Same here!

[vanbean]

33. What is a milkvah?

[ThomCat]

34. A ritual bath

observant women use to purify themselves monthly at the end of her period. Also used before some holidays and special occasions by many observant women and some men.

Special bathhouses are built just for this purpose.

[Brigid]

36. It's mikveh.

It is built in a very specific way; and men and women use it for several ritual cleansing purposes, including conversion to Judaism. Women also undergo this ritual after childbirth and at the end of a menstrual period.

[Scout]

21. i think you have it backwards .... this rule protects the MEN from accidentally

touching one of those unclean women....

it's not meant to protect the women from a damn thing.

[elleng]

22. Mebbe; been a long time, FOREVER, actually, since I was facile with those rules.

[MineralMan]

12. Obscenity in the name of a deity. Feh!

[Poll_Blind]

40. +1

PB

[Lars39]

2. Fuck that shit!

[malaise]

29. Ditto n/t

[Ikonoklast]

3. And people complain about Sharia Law coming here.

We already have religiously insane people in this country.

Jus another bunch of religious nutcases.

[Demeter]

4. Damn straight those signs need to go

the very idea is an anathema.

[Ian David]

6. There is a very good reason for this. It's because Jewish men are notoriously clumsy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtB5OZH0XRI

[TygrBright]

7. Damn' skippy. Take 'em down. Take 'em ALL down.

This is America, Chasidim. If you want to consensually play "Divinely Mandated BDSM" games in the privacy of your own homes or meeting places, go to it. Bless you. I'll support your right to do so to the death.

Keep it off the streets.

irritatedly,
Bright

[HappyMe]

9. Wow!

Speechless.

[RevStPatrick]

10. Yep, that's my neighborhood!

The irony is that one block away, you will find tattooed lesbians making out on their front stoop. It's one of the hippest neighborhoods on the planet, except for the strip on Bedford Ave that SERIOUSLY reminds one of Eastern Europe circa 1901. With cell phones...

Oh... and the Parks Dept knows damn well who put up those signs, they just won't ticket them, because the posters are very politically active in this area.

[msongs]

11. would they like a modesty sign that said "jews keep off streets during daylight hours"? nt

[MineralMan]

15. Emergency! Emergency! Everbody to Get From Street!

If I were a woman and I lived in that area, I'd go there and walk up and down that street, right in the middle of the sidewalk, and force those assholes to step aside for me.

In American etiquette, it has been the rule for a very, very long time that men step aside to let women pass, when possible. These old farts don't get to change that!

[TygrBright]

17. I loved that film. Alan Arkin was wonderful. Thanks for the reminiscence. n/t

[backscatter712]

13. Fundie is fundie. Completely batshit.

It's Jewish fundie in this case, but just as mental as Christian fundies or Muslim fundies.

[hifiguy]

18. Peeeeeeeeee-yew!

Take down the signs, and ASAP. That is absolutely revolting.

The smartest piece of advice ever given was "when in Rome do as the Romans do."

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. Someone simly mis-translated the lyrics to Super Bon-Bon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjkOd5m-K4o

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. unbelievable

[valerief]

24. Oy, vey! What is this? The 13th century?

It's getting more like it every day.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Why I don't like any form of fundamentalism.

I don't care who does it

[Marrah_G]

28. These "customs" disgust me.

[nichomachus]

30. These are the same people who had the city remove bike lanes

So the men wouldn't have to look at women who weren't dressed head to toe with their heads covered. Not much difference between the Hasidim and the Taliban.

[Rex]

37. Please, all precious Jewish daughters...don't move.

Step aside for no man. Insanity should be kept at a minimum if it can be helped. Please help put a stop to religious insanity by looking ahead and walking forward.

[KurtNYC]

38. Precious trees that grow in Brooklyn, look out for bigots with bolts.

[geardaddy]

39. +1000