Nothing prepared Yakir Lance — an ultra-Orthodox fellow who lives in the heart of Tel Aviv — for his encounter with a secular cab driver at the end of January.
Lance ordered a cab through a taxi app, as he usually does, and waited outside his home. When a taxi drove past him without stopping, Lance assumed that it was some kind of mistake. Then he called the driver, who told him directly, “You are an ultra-Orthodox disease spreader; I can’t take you,” and sped away.