Freedom Riders, Israeli style
Vera Kreidlin boarded an empty No. 56 bus for the 25-minute ride from
a religious neighborhood in the heart of the city to Ramat Shlomo, an
ultra-Orthodox Jewish enclave in East Jerusalem. Dressed in a cotton
shirt and jeans on a sweltering July day, Kreidlin opted for a seat near
the front, three rows behind the driver.
It would have been enough to make Rosa Parks proud.
Along
the way, the bus stopped to pick up fervently religious men in crisp
black suits. The vast majority of the women who boarded the bus, all of
them modestly dressed, entered through the bus's center door. And every
single one headed for the rear.