Beit Shemesh – Faces of young girls presenting Purim costumes have been blurred in ads published in Beit Shemesh’s ultra-Orthodox newspapers, leading to a consumer boycott against the toy store chain marketing the costumes.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The chain, Red Pirate, claims the ads were censored by the newspapers without its consent.
The ad shows children “modeling” Purim costumes. But while the boys’ faces are fully exposed, the girls’ faces are blurred.
The first to protest the incident was Hadassa Margolese, the mother of eight-year-old Naama who was humiliated by religious zealots on her way to school.
The ad shows children “modeling” Purim costumes. But while the boys’ faces are fully exposed, the girls’ faces are blurred.
Margolese posted pictures of the censored ads on the chain’s Facebook page, stating: “Although I like your store here in Beit Shemesh, I will not shop in a place which agrees to blur little girls’ faces in advertisements. I find it shocking.”
Many readers rushed to join the boycott, writing on the store’s Facebook wall: “How disgusting… Do you also spit on little girls? That’s the fashion now in Beit Shemesh”; “I am a woman with a face. Now I’ll know not to buy from your store!”; “No one should enter your store, and not just in Beit Shemesh!”
Following the protest, the Red Pirate chain issued a statement clarifying that the newspapers’ editorial boards censored the girls’ faces in the ad without consulting the chain.
“The newspapers’ kashrut supervisor made the decision to publish the blurred ad,” the chain wrote. ”
Any newpaper editor who would do somthing like this is perverted and should be fired from his job. How crude and disgusting are these zealots going to be?? Mamash this is an 8 year old girl he is afraid that someone will lust after?? Have these Beis Shemesh yidden no control over their yeitzer harah?
The newspaper’s ‘kashrut supervisor’ should stick to looking at cows not little girls.
Equal opportunity craziness.
I’m sorry to say this but sadly its true. This woman hadasah margolese has lost her witt and she is completely out of touch. If you are torah observent then you have to admit and except the fact that the halacha requires segregation between the sexes. If you feel that it is discrimenatory then you will have to ask hashem for clarification when he calls upon you to return to heaven.
Mrs margolese has lost her balance and she is now totally driven by a blind hate towards ultra orthodox jews which will lead her to develop a hate torah observent jews alltogether. Just watch her decline in loyalty and faith to torah and mitzvos over the next 6 months.
Do you know where this convoluted stupidity comes from? These so called Kashrus supervisors have way to much time on their hands and come up with this non halachic, non Toiradiga supposed halachas to justify their pitiful worthless exsistance, or they are sick perverts, or both. Not sure which of the two is more pathetic. Maybe i’ll just ask them when I see them in my shul everyday when they come for a handout, and probably spit at me behind my back. remember? they are very good at spitting. Not normal.
You guys are not right, this is a chareidi newspaper, and they have the right to enforce their policies the way they want, if they have a zero- tolerance policy when it comes to female faces, so be it, what is cruel and vicious, is people like Hadassa Margolese who will stir the pot to make a fight where ever possible, yes frum people also have the right to lead their life the way they want, that’s real democracy. A LITTLE TOLERANCE PLEASE!!
Shocking?? Really?? Shocking is a woman can be such a chatzifa!!
Ugh this is so creepy and shows how much insanity is highjacking religion. The editors are basically saying we have a huge pedophile problem in our community so we will censor little girls faces for those pedophiles. Might as well censor little boys faces too because there are pedophiles that are into little boys.
Beit Shemesh, where I go to “get away from it all!”
what we need are newspapers for men that have no pictures of women, newspapers for women that have no pictures of men, and newspapers for those few odd ball normal folk that have pictures of both men and women.
Thank you Mrs. Margolese for proving that your Bet Shemesh media assault had more to do with attacking Chareidim than it was about protecting your daughter. A selfish wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Yated and Hamodia do the same thing. In Boro Park the local Toys4u ads either blur the nikeive or have images of zechurim.
This is terrible, but I don’t know if the store is to blame. If they don’t show the faces they will be boycotted by one segment, if they do show the faces they’ll be boycotted by another group. Is this what the Jewish people have come to….?
I would venture to say that this form of Judaism is equally as foreign to the Torah as Reform.
Mrs margolese has now shown her true face ( no pun intended) I now believe the entire incident with the spiting at her daughter was blown out of proportion by her for whatever motovations she had against the so called zelots. (Yes, I agree the spitting is unacceptable but this story tells me she too is an extremist for her cause.) Here in the US all the “hemishe” newspapers Yated, Hamodia, mishpacha, Der yid, Blatt etc. block out faces of women. Its called modesty.
To posters 1-4 did you ever hear of the word modesty. I personally don’t agree with blocking out the faces but a newspaper who caters to many different groups has the right to do so.
Sue g-d for segregating between sexes?!?!?!?! He created them different gave them different bodies, jobs, tasks in life, mitzvos etc etc etc. Feminism clashes with the Torah and common sense period.
It does require a separation at times, e.g. davening, and avoiding yichud, as well as a generally modest approach (tzniut).
It does not require the covering and/or removing the faces of females in every public venue.
If you choose to life your life segregated from females, that is your choice (and it’s a choice, not a humrah). But that choice requires you to avoid them and it does NOT require women to avoid you. Le’havdil, you’re like a nazir who grabs the wine from people at Shabbot kiddush–it’s not assur for them to have the wine!
As for halacha, need I remind you of real d’oraitas? I doubt that Mrs. Margolese is off balance, filled with a blind hatred, and will develop a hate for all frum Jews.
This has been done in ny always so what?
How far has this generation fallen! Lack of education, lack of belief in the value of work, has resulted in this fanatic nonsense.. The days of the gedolim of those who came from Europe is over and the Jewish people await new leadership.
Why are we any better?? We have papers like the Yated and the Flatbush Jewish Journal that refuse to publish a single picture of any female regardless of whether its a 90 year old Rebitzin or a 4 year old girl. Choddosh is assur min hatorah. This krumkeit is growing worse and worse. It never ceases to amaze me how we are continuously moving to the right, supposedly getting “frummer” while more and more frum people are being arrested for financial crimes and pedophilia.
What’s the address for Red Pirate? I’ll buy double the costumes, to compensate for the loss of Margolese not buying.
By the way, Margolese, I thought you are not of the kind that likes to impose your convictions on others?! Or did you now come out of the closet, and are now showing your hatred to Jews who follow the Gemora halacha?!
This is one extreme end. At the other extreme end you have Vogue mkagazine in France which published some very disgusting photos of a 10-year-old.
You guys don’t realize but if you would look good on lots of items in the Kosher Groceries in your neighborhood you would find lots of stickers covering the faces of women and girls we just don’t have such a Rishka like this Margolies
An ultra-Charedi newspaper is meant for an ultra-charedi readership, who have no problem with the blurring. If you are not ultra-chareidi, why are you even reading their newspaper? MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! Don’t tell other people what their standards should be.
how sick. this has nothing to do with tznius. its pure stupidity. do we wonder why our children are going off the derech…kids are not stupid and the sense stupidity. this is getting worse by the day…if responsible people dont stand up. this insanity will get worse. almost on par with lhavdel the taliban.
Best would be if they would cover the faces of the boys as well. HAPPY PURIM.
all hiemish news papers in willi, bp and monsey would do the same thing this is not isolated to beth shemesh.
Is the store paying for this ad? It would seem to me rather simple – if the newspaper significantly changed the character of a paid ad, it forfeits the income and endangers future revenue from this client. If the store agrees to the terms of advertising in this vehicle, it should admit it and not hide behind “supervisors”. Regarding the concept in its most elemental form, the claim of “tznius” is so foreign to any Judaism I’ve learned, taught, and lived that I look upon it in with a detached eye.
Lets support this chain.
It is appropriate it blur their faces. I hope they make a lot of money off this free publicity
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and the minds of our so called ultra religious is being wasted on absolute irrelevant nonsense they dabble in this kind of mindless childish insanity how low can you go.
More media incitement! They take a little issue like this and blow it up! What they did is fine-they can do what they want! if you don’t want to buy the paper then don’t.
harryw, a few points:
Referring to your post number 60, no one was “imposing” on the hareidi newspaper. Citizens of Bet Shemesh who got the newspaper in their mailboxes (myself and Mrs. Margolese included) exercised our democratic rights to express our outrage at having such shtuyot and perversion appear in our homes, and informed the store that we, along with many members of our community who make up a large percentage of their client base would no longer be shopping their if they were to continue this practice.
This is old news and has long been resolved. The store said they will pull the ad from that particular publication, as it was the decision of the paper to blur the pictures.
You were over issurim of lashon hora and rechilut, as well as sinat chinam. You don’t know Hadassa from a hole in the wall, and you have absolutely no right to publicly and falsely bash a woman you know nothing about.
You said segregation is required by halacha- that’s false. We have halachot of Tzniut, Yichud and Shomer Negiya precisely because our Torah understands that men and women interact, and with these halachot we can do so appropriately. There is no need to distort the halachot.
Ladies it is time to take matters into our own hands. Whoever has the money and talent to start a magazine for frum ladies that will show women’s faces – I will be the first to support!
i have lived in Ramat Bet Shemesh for 11 years. This form of advertising has existed for at least most of that time, and across all the stores that sell costumes. It is not driven by the sellers. Those that it matters to pressured the publications to do it. In the beginning many people found this nuts and there was a lot of traffic on the email lists (there weren’t blogs then …) Today, most have gotten used to seeing it. With Beit Shemesh so much in the bad news this seems to be just another spoonfull, but it really isn’t recent at all – probably like the sign on Chazon Ish st and a bunch of other issues associated with bet shemesh. it really is a city with a lot of good things going for it, beatiful orthodox kehillas of all kinds and colors, some fantastic jewish leaders, mountains of chesed done daily – and with some very serious and significant issues as well.
I think this woman ought to be investigated by child protective services. She is abusing and exploiting her daughter.
post the link to the website or facebook page I will support them.
harryw: your insane, FYI show me the halacha you must blot out the face of a woman in a picture, better yet show me where it says you must keep the sexes segregated all the time.
Typical. When you’re doing something stupid and ridiculous screech “It’s our right to say what we want!” Deny others their rights and they bellow “We have standards! You have to live by them!” as they stone you.
They hypocrisy is stunning.
Ask any decent psychologist and they’ll tell you that this obsession with so-called “Tznious” is just a manifestation of repressed sexual aggression. Worried about kids being abused? Then start with the children of perverts who yell “Prutza” and spit at little girls (or any women), then move on to those who are turned on by seeing little girls’ faces in ads for toy stores, and of course, don’t forget those who can’t help leering at women on buses or drooling when female doctors go up to accept their awards.
Thankfully most Chareidim do not suffer from this mental illness and really couldn’t care less about these things. (For example 75% of Israeli Chareidim PREFER non-segregated buses.) Thus, the onus is on all of us, Chareidim and not, to do what Mrs. Margolese did and smack these creeps down whenever and wherever possible.
A simple perusing of the above responses indicates the lack of clarity Klal Yisroel currently has on this subject. People are very emotionally charged on how to delineate the exact borders of Tzniyus and Hashkafa… and some write things they know is not appropriate – let alone menschlich. What we need is leadership. Period. Strong Leadership either from the accepted “Gedolei HaDor” or other
Rabonim acceptable to both centrist & more right wing views on just how far do we go with all Tznuis & Hashkafa issues.