As leading Chassidishe Rebbes and Rabbanim prepare for what is expected to be a historic meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House today, there is one simple but extremely important message for Chassidishe mosdos, newspapers and publications:
Please — do not alter the photographs.
If official photographs emerge from today’s meeting containing women, and your publication does not print photographs of women, simply do not use those pictures. Find another photograph. Crop the image appropriately if it can be done without changing what actually occurred. Use a graphic.
But do not Photoshop anyone out.
There is no reason for an historic meeting between President Trump and leading Chassidishe Rebbes to become the latest national media controversy involving the frum community.
We have already seen exactly how badly this can go.
In 2011, following the U.S. military operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the Chassidishe newspaper Der Zeitung published the now-famous White House Situation Room photograph showing President Barack Obama and senior administration officials monitoring the operation.
Because of the newspaper’s policy against publishing photographs of women, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Council official Audrey Tomason were digitally removed from the photograph.
The result was a massive Chillul Hashem.
Instead of the story being about the elimination of the world’s most wanted terrorist, the altered photograph itself became international news. Major media outlets across America and around the world reported that an Orthodox Jewish newspaper had “erased” Hillary Clinton from history.
Der Zeitung subsequently apologized and explained its religious standards, but the damage was already done. The controversy followed the frum community for years and was even discussed by Hillary Clinton herself.
Today presents precisely the type of situation where that lesson must be remembered.
The anticipated White House meeting is an extraordinary opportunity for some of the most prominent Chassidishe leaders in America to meet directly with the President of the United States.
There will almost certainly be photographs. There may be official White House photographers. Administration officials or staff members may appear in the pictures. Some of them may be women.
Chassidishe publications have every right to maintain their standards and refrain from publishing photographs of women.
But maintaining those standards does not require altering history.
If a photograph doesn’t meet your publication’s standards, don’t publish it.
It really is that simple.
The frum community does not need to wake up tomorrow morning to CNN, the New York Times and every other major media organization running stories about a Chassidishe publication digitally removing a female White House official from a photograph with President Trump.
Today’s meeting should be remembered for the substance of the discussion, the extraordinary access granted to Gedolei Yisroel and the issues affecting the frum community that they bring directly to the President.
It should not be remembered because somebody decided to open Photoshop.
Please, learn from what happened before.
Keep your standards. Don’t publish photographs that violate them.
Just don’t alter the photos.
A concerned Askan who sees the writing on the wall.
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20 Responses
People are way too quick to accuse people of a chillul Hashem. If they had a p’sak, and they were acting according to their p’sak, then they were doing the right thing. It is impossible to make a chillul Hashem by doing the right thing, regardless of whether people understand it or not.
Next time anybody wants to use the term Chillul Hashem, just don’t stop and don’t say it. It’s the worst possible thing you could accuse another Yid of doing, and most of the time it’s exaggerated, simply not true, or based on the person’s own belief systems rather than an actual evaluation of the situation.
While I agree with the general thrust of the post, it’s interesting that the author chose the phrase “chillul H’ “. “Chillul H’ ” isn’t the same thing as “bad PR for the Jews”. What cropping Hillary Clinton etc out of a photo did, was highlight the community’s values of not printing pictures of women. Maybe by extension, their values concerning women in public positions in general. Unless those values are contrary to what H’ wants, then how can it be a chillul? Unless the suggestion is that those photos lead to misinterpretation of that community’s values, and make people think they have values that are neged Razton H’. But if it’s just that non Jews will realise that we have very very different values to them and they find some of those values abhorrent, that isn’t chilul H’, that’s kiddush H’. It may not be smart visa vis shalom malchus etc, but I don’t think it can be called a chilul.
Laughing out loud. The official OBL sit-room photo was already altered — Obama was photoshopped in to the photo that was released to the public. He wasn’t there. They painted him into a corner. So when the frum mags altered it again they were just continuing the work.
Letter writer is 100% right.
KEEP YOUR MESORAH AND STANDARD (IT’S BEEN WORKING VERY WELL FOR THE PAST 200 YEARS, AND US LITVISHE ARE GRATEFUL TO YOU FOR THAT).
However, understand how the world sees when you take woman out, simple just don’t print.
keeping the torah, and especially gedarim of tzniyis, is never a chilil Hashem. a chilil Hashem is only, by definition, when someone is doing an aveira.
please stop making up fake Torah, THAT is a chilil Hashem
The biggest Chillul Hashem is between Jews themselves. That is what hallucha is saying. I cannot see a bigger Chillul Hashem than publishing pictures from woman. And in chodesh Elul.
IF UR desperate TO SEE A PICTURE OF HILLIRY CLINTON THAN I COULD GUIDE U WERE TO SEE HER
It’s not a hillul hashem to follow the Torah on tznius, the same way it’s not a hillul hashem to reject Yoshke Pundrik, it’s not hillul hashem to say Jerusalem is ours, and it’s not hillul hashem to pray with a mechitza.
This is a mistake that was made 15 years ago and hasn’t happened again as far as I’ve heard. I’m confident that all the chareidi publications learned their lesson and will be sure going forward to make brand new mistakes instead of repeating the old mistakes of the past.
This letter should be especially taken to heart by communities who preach about not being misgareh ba’umos.
YWN: I’d appreciate if you post this…
Just asking why we can’t ask the Rebbe’s and RY about this? Simple enough…
BTW: Rabbi zilberstein claims that when a non jew asks for something unreasonable—it’s not CH. Does this apply here?
Also: The Rashab of Lubavitch loudly at St. Petersburg —encouraged Yidden to stand up against the Czar when it comes to ruchnious. He said that our neshomas LEKATCHILA weren’t sent to Golus. Does this apply?
Why not just issue a carefully worded explanation, including notice that magazines directed at frum women have no pictures of women either. In a famous encounter between a provactive secular woman with a Breslover yungerman on a bus from Bnei Brak to Ashdod some years ago, the originally hostile woman was moved when he told her that he honored his wife for all her hard work in bringing up their large family by not looking at other women except for her. His wife very much valued that the the secular woman also changed her feelings when she heard it put that way. Seems like there might be an opportunity to turn this into a Kiddish Hashem.
Can’t say I woulda thought of this “issue” in advance, I gota get my yeshivisha kup polished
“The result was a massive Chillul Hashem.”
Really? Where would one find in the halachos of Chilul Hashem that the prior photo-alteration was a Chillul Hashem as you claim?
Or, perhaps you really mean that some gentiles misunderstood and therefore you assume that means it was a chillul Hashem?
doom777:
Jerusalem is most certainly not “ours”, as we have been expelled from G-d’s holy land, as all religious Jews pray during every Mussaf, despite any number of Jews who might live there. So, yes, it is indeed a chillul Hashem to claim against the Torah that it is ours.
ujew:
Do you have the slightest idea of what does and does not fall under the halachos of hisgarus baUmos, or are you just expressing your feelings that Jewish values are to be subservient to secular custom?
The letter writer has a good point. He is not saying you should print pictures of women; he is just trying to avoid problems. It’s OK to be considerate of everyone’s sensitivities. That is not an unreasonable request. There are plenty of frum erliche jews who also get upset when women are photoshopped out of pictures.
And for all those claiming that the newspapers are following the dictates of the halachos of tzninus, cut it out. The concept of not printing women’s pictures in Jewish periodicals is a modern invention that evolved primarily for business incentives, not frumkeit incentives. The owners of the papers figured that they would probably sell more papers if they followed that policy over another. There are more people who would get upset over seeing pictures of females than those who get upset about females being excluded. It’s a numbers game, not a hashkafic and certainly not a halachic one. If you doubt it, ask the publications yourself
The real chilul Hashem is the hero worship of Trump and the acceptance of miyusdik MAGA values among many in our tzibur. If the Rabbonim need to meet the President as an act of askunus so be it but there is no need to hype up the meeting in a way that leads to kilkul hadeyos that has become rampant since Trump infecting the frum oilam with his poisonous ideology.
another danger – when Jewish leaders use access to non-Jewish leaders to advocate for policies that many/most other Jews oppose. Hope this does not happen.
I am glad that finally, after so many years the brother Satmar Leaders shook hands and exchanged pleasantries in the presence of Donald J Trump, our U. S. President. No Chillul H-shem there, but the glaring gaf of a woman in the pictures did bother me. Satmar do not allow printing of pictures of women in their newspapers and magazines. I happen to agree with them on this sensitive point. The Chillul H-shem was that there was a woman in the room caught by the camera smiling. It was wrong to have her there. Donald Trump should know better than to have allowed that gaf to happen.
Baruch Hashem the Trump White House kept the women out of the room, altogether, so this ended up being a non-issue.