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In Israel’s Religious Press, Hillary Clinton Is Invisible


hilHillary Clinton may become the president of Israel’s most important ally, but her image is banished from a significant swath of the country’s media: the ultra-Orthodox press whose deeply conservative readership chafes at images of women.

Clinton’s nomination as Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency is casting light on a longstanding policy that has already applied to other female figures from Germany’s Angela Merkel to Israel’s own prime minister Golda Meir. But whereas the election is causing some discussion among U.S. ultra-Orthodox media, their Israeli equivalents are digging in their heels.

“For us there is no question. We will not publish pictures of women, period,” said Meni Shwartz, editor of the ultra-Orthodox news site Behadrei Haredim.

About 11 percent of Israel’s 8.5 million citizens are Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox. Recognizable by their black hats and long black clothes, they often lead insular lives, separated from the more secular Jewish majority and closely adhering to Jewish laws. Ultra-Orthodox women traditionally dress in long skirts and long-sleeved shirts, covering their hair if they are married. Men and women sit separately at synagogues and weddings and unrelated women and men refrain from physical contact.

Ultra-Orthodox media, which include four daily newspapers, two main weeklies and two main web sites, cater to conservative ideals that include preserving women’s modesty and skipping topics involving drugs, murder and sex. Many consider showing pictures of women a violation of those values, however newsworthy the figure.

So Haredi media use pictures of the White House, Democratic running mate Tim Kaine or even Bill Clinton instead of showing Hillary’s face.

The issue sparked discussion in Israel this year when Yated Neeman, the largest ultra-Orthodox daily, published a story about Clinton’s choice of Kaine as her running mate, accompanied by a photograph of Clinton’s husband.

“Hey Yated Neeman, what will happen if Hillary really wins? Four years of photos of Bill?” tweeted journalist Yair Ettinger, who covers religion for the secular daily Haaretz.

Beni Rabinovich, a journalist with Yated Neeman, tweeted back that the Haredi press has “a clear and rigid line on this issue. Without Bill or with Bill, we’ll manage.”

Yaakov Lustigman, foreign affairs reporter for the popular Haredi newspaper Hamevaser, said his readers are fascinated by the U.S. elections and “we have no problem with there being a female president” — but they don’t want to see Clinton’s picture or even read her first name.

Hamevaser achieved notoriety when it edited German Chancellor Angela Merkel out of a picture of world leaders marching through Paris after extremists attacked the offices of the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine in 2015.

Homodia, a veteran ultra-Orthodox paper, is the only current Haredi daily that existed during the administration of Meir, Israel’s only female prime minister. A reporter there said that at the time, in the early 1970s, the newspaper did not publish her picture.

News site Kikar Hashabbat publishes demure photographs of Clinton and other female leaders, according to foreign affairs reporter Israel Cohen.

“Hillary Clinton is in her 60s. She’s solid, she dresses modestly and she’s likely to be the next president,” Cohen said. “You cannot ignore it.”

But it is the lone exception, and journalists at rival publications said they don’t consider the site to be truly Haredi because of its policy.

Rivka Neria-Ben Shahar, an expert on Haredi media at Sapir College in Sderot, said ultra-Orthodox newspapers have become more conservative in the past decades — but her studies show Haredi women today overwhelmingly support the policy.

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis, some with tens of thousands of followers, set the guidelines for what is acceptable in their communities. Several ultra-Orthodox papers have rabbinical committees overseeing their content, and journalists say the issue of whether to publish Hillary Clinton’s picture hasn’t been discussed.

Behadrei Haredim, headquartered in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, walks a tight line between conservative ideals and the modern essence of being online.

Shwartz, the editor, said he gets about 1 million unique visits to the site a month, with users coming from Israel and around the world. The only photographs of women are in a section called “women’s lobby,” which focuses on cooking, motherhood and lifestyle. Users entering this area are warned that only women should proceed.

Atara Sternbuch, an observant woman who runs the site’s English section, said the lack of women’s pictures on the main site is “just not an issue.” She said people who want to see pictures of Hillary Clinton can search elsewhere. “We want to make it comfortable to our readers who don’t want to be exposed to that,” she said.

American ultra-Orthodox media have traditionally shied away from publishing women’s pictures as well. But the prospect of a Clinton presidency is stirring some debate. One newspaper recently broke a taboo by publishing a picture of Hillary Clinton’s hand.

Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter, editor of the weekly Ami Magazine in New York, said he would consider printing Clinton’s photograph if rabbinical authorities allow it.

“We don’t want to isolate the executive branch of the U.S. government,” Frankfurter said. “It’s too important for us as Jews who are citizens of the U.S. and as Jews who are friends of Israel.”

Sheldon Schorer, former chairman of Democrats Abroad Israel, derided the policy of excluding women’s pictures and said it put Clinton at a disadvantage.

“I don’t think the Jewish religion really requires that.”

(AP)



10 Responses

  1. There is no reason to keep revisiting this “no-photograph” policy, although the mention of a first name seems bizarre even by Chareidi standards. Its better that we have Chareidi families reading a newspaper reporting on current events, albeit graphically “censored” rather than having them avoid newspapers entirely and living in the dark with no awareness of what is happening in the world around them. The futures of EY and U.S. political outcomes are inexorably intertwined and that will affect even the most hard line Chareidi communities.

  2. “Atara Sternbuch, an observant woman who runs the site’s English section, said the lack of women’s pictures on the main site is “just not an issue.” She said people who want to see pictures of Hillary Clinton can search elsewhere. “We want to make it comfortable to our readers who don’t want to be exposed to that,” she said.”

    And it shouldn’t be an issue for Yeshiva World News either. Please stop publishing pictures of women.

  3. The snooty, disrespectful tone of this article, summed up by the snip at the end, is a healthy reminder that, vacation or or, we are still in golus.

  4. “Recognizable by their black hats and long black clothes” who u r YWN??
    2) is that our biggest problem in life?? why we don’t have women’s picture??
    Shame on you!

  5. Gadol Hador,

    why aren’t you this outraged by the abuse of your fellow Jews by the IDF? why aren’t you outraged by teh hillul shabbas law from tel-Aviv.

    i doubt you are a frum yid, and this is more evidence of it.

    You are certainly”enlightened”. Maskilim were called “enlightened”: too,…. you don’t know better than the gedolim…

    The writer for this article and it’s secular commentators have officially won the “hot air” award of the year… worst stereotypes ever, and best in making us seems like we are horse and buggy weirdos…

    Peew…

  6. With Trump’s polls escalating, highly unlikely Mrs. Hillary Obama will win.

    Whatever it is, the religious media are following Torah laws and portraying a photo of a woman falls under the law (Bamidbar 15:39) “you shall not stray (v’lo sasuru) after your hearts and eyes that lead you astray.”

    Besides, it is forbidden to gaze at the face of a wicked person (Megillah, 28a). A murderer, thief and liar, surely falls under this transgression.

  7. #1 While Chareidim are not living in the dark at all and know whatever they need to know and are fully aware of what’s happening in the world, albeit without ugly photos, it’s you who are unfortunately living in the dark, in the dark of the Torah.

  8. I couldn’t agree more. There is no reason we need to see her picture or any other female on YWN. The reason we frequent this site is because we want a site that’s protected from all the outside influences.

    I’m actually pretty surprised at times that YWN is not careful and inadvertently publishes pictures with women not dressed Tzniusdig. Please YWN pay more attention to give us a clean Torahdig website. Thank you very much!

    Dear Editor – please do not publish this comment unless you feel the need to get public feedback on this issue.

  9. Thank you YWN for not giving in to new found zealotry of not printing images of women.

    The Jewish Observer printed pictures of women and so did every other Orthodox periodical aside from the “chadidishe” ones.

    Its time to stop letting the agenda being set by right wing extremists who force all others into quiet submission.

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