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Second Hasidic Newspaper Drops Hillary Clinton and Staffer

Washington Post

De Voce, a weekly Brooklyn Hasidic magazine, has dropped Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason from its pages, much as the Der Tzitung newspaper did. The magazine does leave somewhat blurry lines to suggest the photo was altered, as if a ghost Clinton still lingers, but the females are nevertheless scrubbed from the room.

In a statement, Der Tzitung said, “Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women.” Both magazines are Hasidic, an ultra-orthodox form of Judaism. Yossi Gestetner, a PR consultant within the Orthodox Jewish community, wrote in an e-mail that the removal of Clinton has much less to do with women in power than it does in keeping with the sense of full-scale modesty within the community.

However, many other people saw the incident as an example of the religion’s supression of women. “Extreme discomfort with the presence of women or even images of women is common to virtually all totalitarian religious communities, regardless of the tradition involved,” Brad Hirschfield, a Jewish blogger for The Post, writes.

Others took issue with the affront to journalistic standards. One reader on my previous post about the photo manipulation cited a section the Code of Ethics according to the Society of Professional Journalists. It reads: “Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.”

Albert Friedman, editor of Der Tzitung, said that according to the editorial practice of most Hasidic publications, it is a known practice to never run images of women. Usually, the photographs are cropped to only show men. “It’s clearly stated in our editorial,” he said via phone. Most other Hasidic newspapers published only half the photograph, cropping Clinton and Tomason from the image. His photo editor was “carried away with the fog of victory,” and thought to experiment by photoshopping the picture.

“In Israel, ultra-orthodox or haredi papers routinely refuse to show women,” Michelle Goldberg writes at the Daily Beast. “A 2008 Jerusalem Post story quoted someone from the community explaining, ‘Photoshop works overtime in a haredi newspaper.’”

Friedman said the story mentioned Secretary of State Clinton in the write up, though the article appeared on a separate page from the photograph.

He said it would be a one-time occurrence at the paper. They would stick to cropping photographs, not photoshopping them. Women will still remain off the pages of the paper. “It’s nothing negative connotation to the women. My wife runs my paper. Without women where would we be?”

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9 Comments

  • sick

    this is sick, primitive and a huge chilul hashem. for this reason of been extreme tznius is a dirty word

  • not tznius...

    i guess thats why “chabad” websites ALWAYS put in pictures of women….

  • Who knows?

    The fact is that the White House can play with its photos before they are released, and there’s no way we can tell who was really in the original photo and who was edited in. So then what’s the great harm in the news paper editing people out.

  • Chabad is guilty too

    It’s a major chillul Hashem and disgrace to the Jewish Nation. I know that there are CHABAD websites that blur out womens faces. If they don’t want to show pictures of women, don’t post the pictures. It is unethical to manipulate pictures if nothing else. I hope the chabad websites that act this way stop doing this too!

  • weird

    I think it is hysterical. It’s like she was assasinated together with Bin Laden.

  • Sad

    G-d forbid that women and girls see they are capable of attaining positions of authority.

    4, that’s a great argument. You might as well just say all the Holocaust images are fake, too. So, what’s the great harm in claiming the Holocaust never happened?

  • CHT

    In my opinion, it is not wrong to obscure pictures and people who have tolerance for believes should not mind – however due to millions of sonei Isroel that use any possible hook for spreading their hate, just because of them this may be smelling Hillul Hashem. You know how many times I had challenge to demonstrate very quickly that I am not shaking hand NOT due to the lack of respect – I had to always find some way showing that I like the person or respect her as a manager if she happens to be a manager. Therefore, if there is a religious restriction for photos, this has to be done in a way that there is absolutely no way to derive offense. I seen articles that were praising some women but on the picture there was an associate or a husband. Where is that female hero? She is inside the article from the beginning to an end. Choose pictures to post, don’t edit them. Give everyone as much credit as deserved in the text.

  • Andrea Schonberger

    I’m surprised that Mr. Friedman lets his wife run the paper!