Exclusive Muqata Photos: The "Personal" Mechitza"

The Jerusalem Post broke the story yesterday that Ultra-Orthodox chareidi passengers are being advised by the Rabbinical Council for Public Transportation to adopt a new type of mehtiza when flying.

"The Rabbinical Council for Public Transportation, which is also representing the haredi community on the issue of gender-segregated “mehadrin” buses, is now placing advertisements in haredi newspapers encouraging the community to purchase the traveler mehitzas.

The new mehitzas, made of white nylon, stick onto the fabric of the airplane chair using Velcro and can be arranged to make a protective “shield.” The mehitza goes around the head and is mostly in front of the passenger’s face, protruding only a little to the sides. Its designer, who asked that his name not be published, declined to share pictures and his design details, but said the mehitzas were “airy” and did not bother anybody.

“They’re very nice,” said Rabbi Shimon Stern, spokesman for the Rabbinic Council for Public Transportation. “Very cute. It’s very practical.”

The mehitzas are designed to be portable and fit into a small box, which passengers can bring on the plane.

The airplane mehitzas come in the wake of other recent steps by the haredi community to avoid immodesty, such as the mehadrin bus lines and separate-sex sidewalks in Jerusalem’s Geula neighborhood.

Stern said the main reason for the latest recommendation was to enable haredi passengers to block out in-flight movies. Television sets are banned in haredi communities, and movies are forbidden. In aircraft with large movie screens, it is difficult to avoid watching the films."

Instead of publicizing the story right away, the Muqata blog seriously investigated this issue and is the first blog to have an actual picture of these new personal mechitzas!

Smuggled out of ELAL's PR offices, we have obtained an unauthorized copy of the soon to be released ELAL PR campaign:

(This guy is wearing jeans...obviously this campaign flyer is directed at
MTA students who wear tefillin while flying)

Despite the monopoly on the personal mechitza, Global Superstore IKEA has decided to drop their prices and are marketing their version of the personal mechitza all over the world.

IKEA's collapsible and portable (yet stylish) "Fyllen" (Swedish for Personal Mechitza?) is now being marketed everywhere.
Passengers flying on Purim will be able to try out these personal mechitzas, and decide for themselves if they are truly revolutionary.

The following options were rejected and deemed "inappropriate" by the Rabbinic Council for Public Transportation for a variety of reasons.





hat-tip: Everyone who sent in the JPost article...

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Purim or Not. You decide.

Renegade Rebbetzin Purim Costume
Price: Free with purchase at any supermarket (get paper, not plastic, stupid)

Bark Mitzva Dog Tallis
Price: $12.99

RenReb Dog T-shirt
Price: $22.00


JBLOGOSPHERE PEOPLE: TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

That's right, if you want a chance to be part of this year's JBlogosphere Purim podcast, then record an audio file of yourself, and send it to me.

Technically Challenged? Ezzie has all the details. Just CALL and leave your (anonymous) message, and we'll include it in the podcast. Your message can be:

1. a "hello"
2. a quick ad for your blog.
3. something funny
4. a commerical
5. a sketch
6. be a different blogger and parody them (in good taste, only, or it won't go in)

Time's a wasting...get to work!

To Call and participate:

But there is another way! We've set up a number on GCast for people to call into and record onto. You just call, record, and hang up. If you're in the US: 1-888-65-GCast. Internationally it says +1-305-437-8719. The ten-digit code is C1MAURP1ZZ; The PIN is PURI. Punch those in slowly, it doesn't register if you do it too fast. You can listen to whatever you record before saving (and you can delete it before submission). Please press 2 to save - thanks!

Jameel.







Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Bloggers United Against Pamela Greenbaum.

For those of us in Israel, this story erupted about 3 minutes before candle lighting on Friday, so we didn't know about it till Saturday night.

According to the NY Daily News, Lawrence Public School board member Pamela Greenbaum is suing Google to disclose the identity of the Orthomom blogger, because she was allegedly defamed on the blog and called "ugly" and an "anti-Semite."

One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to see that Orthomom never said Pamela Greenbaum was ugly or an anti-Semite, but a commenter did.

Krum's analysis is as follows:

First, it would seem that she should be asking for disclosure of the commenter, not Orthomom. My understanding of Blogger Law 101 is that merely providing a form for allegedly libelous comments cannot be the basis for a lawsuit. Second, the comments in question don't appear to consitute defamation. Epithets like these are not statements of fact, and therefore not libelous.

Ezzie found this great letter as well:

Dear Ms. Greenbaum,

I read a short piece today regarding your lawsuit against Google regarding comments made about you on an individual blog. I'm sorry to inform you, since you seem to be unaware of this fact, but such is the rhetoric of politics, right or wrong, stupid or not.

But to sue Google over the anonymous comments of other individuals on an anonymous blog for making obviously hateful comments that only a small number of people may have seen? That's... well, that's just stupid. Here's a basic lesson in Blogging 101: That SiteMeter you noticed at the bottom that shows over 300,000 hits to Orthomom's blog? Guess what - they were NOT all on that one post. Orthomom has a great blog, but those 300K were accumulated over a long period of time... and just a tiny fraction were on that particular post, and some of them by [gasp] the same people repeatedly. A good estimate would be that maybe a couple of hundred people saw those comments, and almost none were influenced by them.

But do you know who DOES have a wider readership [somehow]? The NY Daily News. And now, your sad lawsuit which will be laughed out of court will be mocked by possibly tens of thousands in your area... instead of by a select few on a blog. Brilliant, Ms. Greenbaum. I'm sure those who voted you onto the school board are proud that such a forward-thinking individual is their representative.

Sincerely, Glad I Don't Live in Lawrence

Steve I Weiss, The Canonist finds that Greenbaum doesn't believe people are allowed to express an opinion (is Greenbaum on the Lawrence School Board, or the Tehran School Board? And will that comment also get me in trouble?)

It’d be hard to represent a more misleading set of factual claims. The only times the claims of Greenbaum’s being “ugly” or a “bigot” come up are in anonymous comments to this post. It’s impossible to know from the story how much of the factual error is Greenbaum’s and how much is Martinez’s, but either way this is an obviously ridiculous lawsuit that presents at least some questions about Greenbaum’s approach to the First Amendment in her life as an elected official.

For the suit to exist at all, she must believe that people don’t have a right to express opinions of her. That’s a scary position for a school board member to maintain.

DovBear suggests that Greenbaum stop crying and start blogging.

Instead of suing, here's what Pam should do: Start your own blog. It's free, and you can use it to address OM and her commenters directly. Anyone who reads OM's blog will read the Pam Greenbaum blog, too, and, as always, the best argument will win. If you're not a bigot, tell us why. If you're not ugly, put up a picture. Let the blogging community decide.

Orthomom herself doesn't appear too worried, because as quoted by everyone above, Greenbaum has absolutely no case against her; Orthomom didn't even WRITE the alleged insults.

The bottom line here is that Greenbaum looks rather foolish to sue Google to force the disclosure of Orthomom, when it was an anonymous commenter that implied she was ugly.

However, Greenbaum has now given us lots to think about for the upcoming Purim Podcast, and we sincerely thank her for that...reality is always much better than fiction.

Shavua Tov.

Jameel.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael