[hlmencken3]

It's called 'mocking religious Jews disguised as a news story by secular media'.

[BlackVeil]

This story seems odd - there have been other threads describing religious rulings which seem eccentric. Obviously, as you say it is a way for the secular to mock the religious.

But even the most legalistic rulings have a point - it is in the details of life, not in the grand sweeping statements, that values find their actual expression.

And discarded chewing gum is disgusting and unhealthy. So the Rabbi is right.

[TheOtherOne]

It's called 'mocking religious Jews disguised as a news story by secular media'.

How is a no littering rule a bad thing?

[familyop]

"It's called 'mocking religious Jews disguised as a news story by secular media'."

...agreed. Someone with the Associated Press was looking for something to exploit for public ridicule.

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

"It's called 'mocking religious Jews disguised as a news story by secular media'."

You are right. Thanks for giving a name to it. 'Mocking religious Jews disguised as a news story by secular media' is indeed a regular genre pumped out from the Associated Press and other main stream media. It's always some Jewish practice, law, or custom or some religious Jewish person whose activities are taken way out of context and framed as a Ripley's Believe It or Not freak story.