Tensions ran high in Beit Shemesh, Israel, Tuesday night as thousands of people gathered to protest against the rise of ultra- Orthodox extremism.

They spoke out against a growing frequency in attacks against a local religious-Zionist girls’ elementary school and the broader trend of haredi exclusion of women from the public domain.

A woman who reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc “modesty patrol” on a Jerusalem bus last month is now lining up support for her case and may be included in a petition to the High Court of Justice over the legality of sex-segregated buses.