Images of women violate Jewish family magazine’s ‘values’
Humans of the female variety are a thorn in the side of Mispacha, a leading ultra-Orthodox weekly that found itself at the centre of a row back in 2018 when it refused to feature a photo on its cover of Republican politician Nikki Haley, above, then serving as America’s ambassador to the United Nations.
According to Forward, someone close to her approached the publication, suggesting it do an interview with her. The magazine was open to the idea, but a sticking point was reached when Haley said she wanted to be on the cover. It was a “deal-breaker”, with Haley insisting their would be no interview without the photo.
Last week, fresh light was cast on the issue when, in a podcast, Yisroel Besser, a contributing editor at Mishpacha said that Haley had challenged the magazine’s “no women” policy, which was “essential to preserve Mishpacha’s values.”
Besser, above, suggested that printing a photo of someone like Haley would eventually lead to a situation in which Mishpacha would be indistinguishable from a secular magazine.
Then in five years from now, the right store in Borough Park comes in and says, ‘I need you to advertise a woman’s fur coat, but it needs to show the woman’s face because otherwise you won’t see the slope of her shoulders so you won’t appreciate it.’
And then five years after that we look like Vogue. Really? Is that where we want to go?. And who’s going to take responsibility for that?
The podcast host – Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of the Young Israel of Boca Raton, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in South Florida – pushed back against Besser’s argument.
I don’t think the slope needs to be that slippery.
Later Besser said that he had gone on the podcast to speak for himself, not the magazine, and said the point he was trying to make was that those who are trying to change the magazine’s policy should change their tactics.
The rage tweets are counterproductive.
Here’s one.
Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll, is co-founder of Chochmat Nashim, an Israeli advocacy group
In 2016, when Hillary Clinton was the Democratic presidential candidate, Mishpacha featured an image of her and Donald Trump on its cover for the week of the election. The image was heavily doctored so it did not resemble a regular photograph.
But the magazine still faced a backlash, with an editorial in Hamodia, a haredi newspaper, condemning the decision and implying that Mishpacha was not part of the “true haredi press.”
True Charedi newspapers would never publish pictures of women at all, even those who have reached high ranking office. These are the directives by which we live our lives and the precautions that surround us and they do not change in the realm of politics.
The Hamodia editorial said that the secular world understands that Charedi publications subscribe to a high standard of modesty that precludes the inclusion of photographs of women and that they realize that a lack of photo coverage does not indicate a lack of support for a particular individual but is part of the way that God fearing Jews conduct their lives.
The publisher of Mishpacha, Eli Paley, has attributed the decision not to publish pictures of women to what has become an industry-wide standard that would make it impossible to cater to haredi readers without adhering to the no-women policy.
Forward added:
The standard is seen as an outgrowth of a culture in which the modesty of women’s dress has become increasingly scrutinized, even if Jewish laws dealing with modesty do not extend to forbidding the printing of women’s photos.
But women have pushed back against that standard for years, organizing in Facebook groups and attempting to orchestrate letter-writing campaigns to haredi publications, including Mishpacha, to demonstrate that there is a substantial readership for a haredi publication that would publish photos of women’s faces.
5 comments:
I recall seeing a picture of the Statue of Liberty in the USA Hamodia some years ago (the USA and Israeli Hamodia publications are now divorced, but they still sleep together).
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1505707065267867658.html
Sexual abuse
Yaakov Bleich. Since 1992, he's claimed to be chief rabbi of Ukraine. In 3 weeks, he's raised $3 million for Jews in Ukraine & appeared on CNN.
He also allegedly raped / sexually abused a number of girls & young women.
First: who is Bleich & how did he get to Ukraine?
Bleich comes from a "centrist" yeshivish family in NY. After an incident that damaged his reputation in Telz high school Chicago, Bleich began learning in a Stolin chassidish yeshiva in Israel.
According to the nytimes, Bleich came to Ukraine in 1989, age 25, backed by Stolin. He managed to get the pulpit of the historic Great Choral Synagogue and established day schools, camps & programs.
In 1992, Bleich was "appointed" chief rabbi of Ukraine. He was never elected. But it didn't matter. In a few years he had connections to the most powerful people in Ukraine, including famously corrupt President Leonid Kuchma (Wiki him).
Bleich also gained prominence in the larger Jewish world. Until 2018, he was the official rep of the Stoliner Rebbe of Jerusalem. Later, he became VP of World Jewish Congress & executive of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER).
One thing Bleich did as chief rabbi was establish an outreach high school for Ukrainian Jewish girls and boys. Many of these children had little Jewish affiliation, some dormed near Bleich's home - both made them vulnerable.
Over many years, Bleich allegedly sexually abused girls from this school, others attending his summer camp, employees of his programs, and Orthodox female volunteers from North America who work in the summer camp.
Recently, Bleich stopped spending most of his time in Ukraine, instead spending most of his time in the NYC area. He now lives permanently in Monsey & is banned from attending the shul nearest him because of these abuse allegations.
But even in the US, his contact with vulnerable potential victims continues because he helped girls & women immigrate to the US (and Israel) to attend schools & seminaries (including one linked to Touro).
He has leverage over his potential victims due to his support for their education, visas & immigration matters, and his ongoing help to their relatives who remain in Ukraine & rely on his programs (and now need help escaping or surviving as refugees).
For years, Bleich's victims suffered in silence. They couldn't file suit in Ukrainian court because of Bleich's ties to the government. They & their friends received social services from Ukraine, and they knew Bleich could cut that off & ruin their marriage prospects.
But Bleich's alleged abuse became an open secret among Ukrainian-Russian-speaking Baalei Teshuva in the US & Israel. Several years ago, a group of activists began collecting their testimonies.
Fast forward to now: Bleich's campaign to "save the Jews of Kyiv" has raised almost $3 million. His visibility, such as on @CNN and @Ami_Magazine, has retraumatized his victims. Disappointingly, @jacobkornbluh's recent article on him only briefly names the allegations
I gave up on Mishpacha when they printed a picture of people waiting at the gates of Auschwitz the day it was liberated and pixelated out the women because of their "standards". There are no words to describe their people's sexual perversion if an emaciated, shaved woman in a prison outfit is a sexual turn on to them.
The ultra-orthodox are still living in the Middle Ages.
Anonymous, that is actually the biggest hypocrisy of the UO's. They want the best of both worlds.
They're not like the Amish and the Mennonites who scrupulously hold by their ancestors' lifestyle. Them I can respect. The UO's are the opposites. They want to walk around like little ayatollahs and announce "See, we're the only genuine Jews because we keep the lifestyles of our ancestors" but then they go and use cars, electricity and toilet paper.
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