Clinton, dominant yet invisible

AP, the world's major news agencies, and news media distributor to thousands of media outlets worldwide published an article today (Thursday) about images of women not apparent in Charedi media in Israel. Due to the wide coverage of the US election system, where the democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, may soon move into the white house, it is an allegedly big dilemma for ultra-Orthodox media - whether to publish her picture or not.

It is known that all media defined as Charedi refrains from posting pictures of women. There are boundaries of modesty and respect to their orthodox readers. As mentioned above, the article was brought from the perspective of the US elections stating images of women in the Charedi media is an old controversial issue.

Menny Geira Schwartz, chief editor of "B'Chadrei Charedim"- the largest and most recognized Charedi news figure in Israel and popular worldwide, was quoted saying: "This is not an issue for negotiation in "B'Chadrei Charedim". We have no doubts, and we will not publish pictures of women".

Schwartz says there are 1 million unique visits to the site every 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.

I'm an observant woman myself and the editor of "B'Chadrei World". I can say, as a woman, that the absence of female images on the site is not an issue. People looking to see pictures of Hillary Clinton can search elsewhere. We want to make B'Chadrei comfortable for our readers who don't want to be exposed to Women and as I said to AP, women in our company hold key positions. we are given respect and professional aportunities so the fact that we keep to the Charedi Tznius guidelines is a religious issue that we respect and support.

Yaakov Lustigman, foreign correspondent of the newspaper "Hamevaser", told AP that his readers have a great interest in the US election system and have no problem with there being a female president, "but they do not want to see her picture, or even read her first name.

On the other hand, the article stated that "Kikar Hashabbat" (Israeli news site) did publish a photograph of Clinton and other leaders.
This policy is only another explanation to the reason the community doesn't consider the site to be truly Charedi.

Rivka Neria Ben-Shahar, a Charedi media expert at Sapir College, said that "ultra-Orthodox press in recent decades has become more and more conservative, though women overwhelmingly support a policy not to show women on Charedi media according to the rules set by Gedolim worldwide"

Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter, the editor of Ami magazine in New York, told the AP that "If Rabbanim approved an exception and would allow publishing a picture of Hillary Clinton, we won't have a problem with it.

"Moreover, many Charedi media outlets also have a committee of rabbis confirming the contents. Chareidi US media does not publish images of women and the issue never came up for discussion," said Neria.

קישורים:
AP: In Israel's religious press, Hillary Clinton is invisible

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