Hasidic Newspaper Photoshops Hillary Clinton from Iconic Photo
Submitted by Rabbi Jason Miller on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 08:13
A big hat-tip to Failed Messiah (who gave a hat-tip to Critical Minyan) for breaking the news that an Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish newspaper, Der Tzitung, has determined that the photo of top U.S. leaders receiving an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden was too scandalous.
What was so offensive about the image? U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the photo and, based on good intel, the editor of Der Tzitung discovered that she is a woman. The Hasidic newspaper will not intentionally include any images of women in the paper because it could be considered sexually suggestive. The iconic photo shows President Obama, Vice President Biden, and members of the U.S. National Security Team in the Situation Room of the White House. Secretary of State Clinton, wearing a long-sleeved suit jacket, sits with her hand over her mouth. I'm not sure how Der Tzitung determined this was a racy photo. Perhaps they just don't like the idea of a woman with that much political power.
Der Tzitung edited Hillary Clinton out of the photo, thereby changing history. To my mind, this act of censorship is actually a violation of the Jewish legal principle of g'neivat da'at (deceit). I wrote about this subject a year ago following the Flotilla debacle in Israeli waters outside Gaza when the Reuters news agency doctored photos that it published by removing weapons from individuals aboard the Mavi Marmara. The doctoring of photographs like this is referred to as "Fauxtograpphing." I'm curious to hear how Der Tzitung responds to its attempt to remove Hillary Clinton from this iconic photo and thereby from this historic event.
This official photograph was released from the White House and includes the following disclaimer after the caption: "This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House."
(Cross-posted to Blog.RabbiJason.com)
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Let's not forget Audrey Tomason, Director for Counter-terrorism (standing in rear), who was also 'photoshopped' out of history. Joel Katz Religion and State in Israel @religion_state
Time Magazine reports Orthodox newspaper Yated Neeman has replaced Netanyahu's two female Cabinet members, Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver, with men's faces. Much of the newspaper's readership consists of ultra-Orthodox readers who do not think it proper for women to serve in the government.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1924226_1949765,00.html
I guess the readers of Der Tzitung won't get to see any of those erotic pictures of Helen Thomas.
As Ursula K. LeGuin said, "Anything carried to its logical extreme becomes depressing, if not carcinogenic." Of course, they wouldn't listen; it was said by a woman.
These people are 'our' crazies. We need to remember them when we shake our heads in disdain for the Moslem nutcases with their extreme religiosity and judgements.
This kind of liberty with history shows a complete disconnect with humanity, reality, and truth. The ethnocentric self centered control of information is beyond scandalous and is an act of mind and thought control that is inexcusable. Any intelligent thinking person that would continue to read a word of which this publication puts out is showing an active participation to be dumbed down and fed disinformation. Appalling doesn't even come close,
I really want to know who those folks teach their kids was Israel´s Prime Minister from 17 March 1969 to 3 June 1974.
Fundamentalists are sick. No matter what sect they are from they suffer from a common virus...that woman is responsible for their own lack of maturity and human development. They are emotionally retarded boy-men.
I am embarrassed for them.
Why is it that only women can tempt men and not the other way around? If men are so impervious to their desires maybe they should step aside and let women run the world.
I wonder what this paper will do when we get a female President someday.
These fundamentalist extremists make me ashamed to say I'm a Jew. I have more in common with my Christian neighbors that I do with these people.
This almost would make one embarrassed by our religion, until you recall that there are extremists in every group. Sad.
So, where are the Muslim-bashing crowd now? The silence is deafening ;-)
Beneath contempt.
Just think... if religion didn't exist, this thread wouldn't exist.
Someday...
Frighteningly reminiscent of the ideologically-motivated alteration of photographs that was a matter of course in Stalin's Soviet Union.
Strange that the newspaper, for "hasidic" reasons, removes a woman from an image showcasing political power, and yet is not hasidic enough to use the Hebrew language? In Israel, the real Hasidics speak Yiddish and a little bit of English, because they feel Hebrew is a holy language not to be spoken. Putting women in a submissive role is not a part of any jewish culture or religion. Seems like this was more of an editor's personal conservative/extremist views rather than Hasidic.
I'm surprised the newspaper mentioned the US in general.
The doctoring of the Flotilla photos by Reuters was even more pathetic than this instance, as no reasonable person would have blamed those on the Marvi Marmara for taking up any available weapons to defend themselves from heavily armed Israeli attackers.
I once went to a lecture by a rebbitzin who explained that women sit out of the view of the men in an Orthodox synagogue to avoid triggering sexual thoughts in the men during services. I asked her why there wasn't the same concern about the sight of the men giving the women sexual thoughts, and she stared at me in disbelief, as though the idea that women have sexual thoughts was absurd.
"Our" crazies?
Speak for yourself.
Do they sit around and critique the jewish week? Why do you go out of your way to criticize them? You dont like it - dont read it. Only jews can hate themselves as much as you guys do. The rest of the antisemites are just jealous - much the way the destitute arabs are - and the destitute germans of weimar, etc etc etc. what is your excuse?????? Why dont you go critique the arabs newspapers who call for jewish blood
Failed Messiah "banned" a poster because it claimed that that poster, who has a blog of his own, "stole" FM's story. Jewish Humor Central had the story first. FM called the newspaper which photoshopped Hillary out of the iconic photo "DerTzitung.com" which is wrong.
Jewish Humor Central spelled the Haredi newspaper's name correctly, Ditzeitung.com which is a transliterated version of Die Zeitung (The News). It's not Der Zeitung ("as has been pointed out here, "Zeitung" takes the feminine gender both in Yiddish and in German). Therefore, Jewish Humor Central should be the ones getting credit for breaking the story.
Everyone else who ran with FM's version, including the Jewish Press, didn't bother to check the spelling, and if they didn't do that, how could they have linked to the site?
I noticed that HT's blog also got the spelling correct. So he can share credit.
All this reminds me of a deleted scene in "Animal House" where Pinto stole a paper from historian Arnold Toynbee on the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and when Pinto pointed out that he was born after the treaty was signed (in early 1918), the professor said, "Good. Now I know Toynbee didn't steal it from you."
Nice to know a segment of journalists admit to putting their personal wishes for how things were above reality. Wonderful they report on an untrue fairy-tale rather than news and history.
Great point by Anonymous on Sun @20:52. Since men are so easily tempted they are obviously the weaker sex. Women apparently don't have this problem. I like this logic!
There are two ways to avoid chillul hashem. The first is to cover up misdeeds. The second is to not commit them. We owe a debt of gratitude to websites like FailedMessiah.com for making the first avenue unavailable.
I think it is a disgrace and a total insult. How dare they alter a depiction of History! And, this is 2011 - Opression of women (and yes, I believe this counts as such) should be long gone. How dare they!
And, it is clearly against the rules published, that the photos are not to be altered in way! Will they be formally reprimanded?
Just another case of hiding behind ones' Religion.
The answer is that the women present in synagogue are not obligated to do anything and have no role in the proceedings. So if they are distracted by men or otherwise, it doesn't matter. That's the true (and unfortunate) answer.
As a modern Jew, I'm both ashamed and outraged by this action. These people are nothing but extremists who eschew any beliefs but their own.
A large number of them have recently moved into my neighborhood and they are most unwelcome. They are extremely bigoted toward both modern Jews and Gentiles alike. Anything they disagree with is describes as "goyish", with a terribly negative connotation.
They don't work, don't pay taxes, live off the charity of rich supporters, have many kids, and eagerly accept free medical and social services. NY State gives them free health care, food stamps, etc. Their rich benefactors give them free rent, free cars, free clothes, etc. What a stupid system we have.
We reward laziness and extremism. When will this country wake up?
I assume you mean, " if women are so impervious to their desires",or "if men are so vulnerable to their desires"
While I share your general disdain for fundamentalist extremists, there's plenty of shame to go around. Christians, Muslims, Hindus -- even atheists -- have their own crazies that embarrass them. The problem is that we are a little late to the table in acknowledging that our crazies are not just "quaint" living museums. They are dangerous cults, increasing their political influence in affairs outside their own little myopic circle; particularly in Israel.
Such actions make me worried for reputation of Jews. Promoting modesty and morality is understandable and commendable. However, taking out the images of political leaders and, thus, misinforming readers about historical facts defies the whole purpose of having a newspaper. On top of that, gives bad reputation to the essence of Judaism. Thoughtless acts like this add to creation of antisemitism. As a Jew myself who studies Torah, I must say this is not what Torah teaches Jews to do. On the contrary, it teaches "not to put a stumbling block before the blind". And this is exactly what the editors of the paper did: by cutting out the images of women, they created a lie and misinformed their readers. Additionally, Torah teaches to think about consequences of one's actions and not to cause others to judge. In fact, causing others to judge or provoke negative actions is a sin for which we ask forgiveness on Yom Kuppur.
I hope the editors will recognize the mistake they made and will pray to be forgiven on this one. At the end we all make mistakes.
I don't blame them at all if seeing a photo of a woman drives them that mad with lust that they fear the consequences, then they have to do what they have to do. They just cannot control their lustful minds and cannot take responsibility for their own sexual desires if they see a photo of a woman that drives them into fits of carnal thoughts. Shame on Mrs. Clinton!
Shame on you for omitting women from photos. As Jewish Americans we are sending a message to the world that woman are equal. What about the 10 commandments. Thou shalt not covet another man's wife.
You guys got a problem with that. Study more Torah subdue your passions or become like the arab world who suppresses their woman too. What about Golda Meier?
If you can't deal with a woman in the photo, just don't print the damned photo. I'm pretty sure lying and cheating (which this most definitely is) aren't looked upon kindly in any religion.
This represents the media in the world of Avigdor Lieberman.
This is unacceptable. Talk about backwards! You should be ashamed!! HORRIBLE!!!
nothing really surpize me.
Censorship by any news org. or government is reprehensible, but when it is in aid of distorting the truth to such an extent as to deny credit to two people who work tirelessly for peace just because they are women? Especially when they were involved in an historic event the people this newspaper represents one would think. would be heartily approved of? if you told me they were upholding some kind of "sharia law" of extremists who debase women, I would have at least understood. This comment probably won't be printed, though, due to the stipulations that no comments can be critical of the people one is commenting about. Does anyone believe in truly FREE SPEACH anymore? This was the mildest reaction i could muster without being outright patronizing, but really, if deceit and disrespect for women can be justified based on not disrespecting a religious group, then what's next? More killing of cartoonists and speakers of unpleasant truths? Your guidelines make honest very difficult.
That is a lacking on your part- as these are your brothers and sisters. They feel that sheltering the men in their communities in healthy in developing their ideals. Who are you to say they are wrong? And to those of you who will watch movies with inappropriate scenes and view other materials that our Sages ALL prohibit, I suggest you look into the mirror instead of being "shocked and dismayed" by the choices they make to keep their society insulated from the downward spiral that is the society we live in.
To the people that think that these people are like to fundamentalist Muslims:
Be warned, you may see a Chasidic Jew blowing up the Empire State Building and slitting the throats of your kids in the middle of the night.
To those that think you have more in common with your Christian friends:
You do, because you behave like one. When was the last time you read some Torah??? Do you know what a book of Talmud looks like???
I agree 100%. Obviously it is MEN who are the inferior sex.
Merely commenting on ditzeitung.com's removal of the women in the photo is not criticism of the act but merely commentary. And it is newsworthy and worthy of commentary in that "fauxtoshopping" is a distortion of what the picture purports to represent. If any reader takes the commentary as criticism, then (as in A Few Good Men), he can't take the truth.
Ditzeitung.com's credibility and reportage in general would be better served by omitting any photo that perverts the truth.
Do they realize that this is the 21st century?!! I, too, am embarrassed for them.
Remember, many Chasids and other Ultra-Orthodox don't believe that the State of Israel is legal until the Messiah comes, so Golda Meir is a charlatan in their eyes.
Awesome.
The sanity, civility, and grammaticalness (!) of this comments section is a breath of fresh air on the internet.
Bless y'all's hearts.
That same publication ran photos of Golda Meir many years ago....clearly a woman of power and a treasure of Israel. How is that any different? Clearly, this is a misguided, self-serving double standard.
Der Tzitung is so obscure that I never heard of it before, even though I thought I knew all the Orthodox Newspapers. But Orthodox bashing is the Prime Directive of the Jewish Week, so this is something they are very interested in, even from an obscure publication with a miniscule circulation that I never heard of before.
The Jewish Week seems to never criticize: homosexuals, Jews who marry Gentiles, Reform Rabbis who eat pork on Yom Kippur or Conservative Rabbis who teach that the Exodus from Egypt never really happened.
That is because Orthodox bashing is the Prime Directive of the Jewish Week, not Reform bashing or Conservative bashing.
The "Der Tzutung" newspaper's cutting out the likeness of females in photographs before publishing them is stupid and crazy and shows us that while it is the year 2011, some still live in the dark ages with no good result.
I read a post on another blog that said words to the effect that this "is religion gone wild" but I'm not so sure I agree totally with that. Rather, it is men just being men and treating women any way they want to just because they can.
Their reasoning that women in photos "could be sexually suggestive" is nuts because how then do they explain allowing themselves to walk down public streets where many women are present . . . do they walk with their eyes closed? Male chauvinists pure and simple hiding under the guise of religion, is more like it.
As a Jew, I find this disgusting. If, for whatever reason, you can't print the photo as it was actually taken, DON'T PRINT IT AT ALL. If you have some dire, compelling reason that you need to print the picture of, say, one person in the photo, crop the frame to only show that one person - don't ever pretend that some of the people just weren't there! There was certainly no such compelling need in this case anyway, and the picture clearly stated that it was NOT to be manipulated. Take it as it is, or don't take it at all! It's fanatics like these that help stereotypes grow.
It was a normal soviet practice during the Stalin era to remove unfaforable personalities, like Trotskiy, from the historic pictures. There is nothing new in this world.
Cardoso, good question, but what makes you think that "those folks" actually teach their kids about ANY of Israel's Prime Ministers??? They are very likely anti-Zionist and may not teach about Israel as if it is a legitimate nation.
Also, re: their "apology" and their knee-jerk practice of photo-shopping out women BECAUSE OF their gender, why did they not actually acknowledge that Secy Clinton and Ms. Tomason were in the picture. (I'll bet they don't do that in any of the other photo-shop jobs they've likely done, either.) "Modesty" is just a fig leaf they're hiding behind!
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