Actually, men like that produced wonderful music. As did George Gershwin, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, Jews all.

“They shuddered when contemporary styles were introduced to the youngsters of the time, thereby symbolizing the change of generations. It was in those years that organized crime reigned and drinking became popular despite strict laws prohibiting alcohol. This drastic transformation eternally altered the public’s approach to immoral behaviors. It isn’t the Jews who changed – it is the world that changed.”

Actually, a lot of Jews participated in bootlegging and worse. There was an infamous shomer Shabat hit man named Red Levine. And who wants to remember Jewish gangsters like Buggsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz, and Lepke Buchalter.

“Refraining from looking at pictures that contain women — regardless of age and appearance — is literally the wedding-band for many religious; moreover, it is a protection that is permanent and everlasting.”

It is not mentioned in any of the traditional halachic sources I’ve ever seen, which refer only to refraining from looking at LIVE women.

And characterizing a photographic portrayal of a 62 year old modestly dressed professional woman as forbidden only brings mockery to Torah, fuzzing the line between photographs like the one in question and ones that really ARE a halachic problem such as the stuff that appears on the covers of fashion and celebrity magazines on a regular basis, not to mention the front page of the *New York Post*. But it is the *New York Times*, which rarely has any interesting photographs of anything, that gets bashed by the frum community.

“It didn’t seem to be newsworthy when Reuters altered pictures at the Lebanon War and Gaza Flotilla to portray Israel in a bad light”

It WAS newsworthy, and it causes the reputation of the news organization to diminish when it prints falsehood. *The New York Times* is still in my doghouse for publishing Judith Miller’s propaganda in the leadup to the Iraq War.

“They are always so busy telling them how to be and how to dress IN ADDITION TO working on themselves. Tznius and shmiras einayim go hand in hand and both are given high priority in chassidic circles.”

Not in this case! They were so concerned with tzniut that they went over an issur d’oraita!

“It is perfectly reasonable to refrain from printing any picture that doesn’t meet the strictest standard – after all, the magazine is read in communities throughout the world. However, why risk offending anyone by printing some pictures of women and not others?”

It may be reasonable, but it isn’t Judaism. We do NOT attempt to hold to all opinions. If we did that, we would never produce children because you will never have a mikveh that satisfies all opinions. But we would starve to death first because you will never have kashrut that satisfies all opinions.

“our gedolim have forbidden women to allow themselves to be photographed or videotaped if it will be posted on the Internet or other public media”

Maybe YOUR gedolim have, but MY gedolim have done no such thing.

The Yiddish newspapers in question could have simply declined to publish the photograph at all. Instead, they violated Torah prohibitions in order to follow a minhag. That isn’t Orthodox. Doctoring photographs is what I would have expected from Pravda, not a Jewish publication.

WHY? we are afraid of the truth and teaching our kehilla what emes is all about. (eg. So what if a particular rebetzin hair is not covered? or if the Gadol/Rosh Yeshiva was reading a secular book or hatting a white golf cap. or if a RZ Rav was sitting together at the dais with others..)