New York – Chasidim Find Themselves in the Spotlight Following Altered White House Photo

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    New York – Though the Chasidic community tends to shun the limelight, the fallout following Der Tzeitung’s altered photograph of the White House Situation Room has thrust both Chasidim and their way of life to the forefront of today’s news. While Abraham Friedman, owner of Der Tzeitung insists that publishing the now infamous Hillary Clinton-less photo was not a newsworthy event, the rest of the world seems to disagree.

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    The story has gone viral, and has been picked up by virtually every major news outlet and the Yahoo news story entitled “Where’s Hillary” has received over 18,500 comments in just over twenty four hours. Twitter has been abuzz with the issue as well, with the word “Hasidic” garnering thousands of tweets.

    While Der Tzeitung issued a statement apologizing to the White House, based on comments on numerous news sites including The Huffington Post, Time, CNN, The Daily News, Fox News and more, the general public seems to be less than understanding of the situation.

    Damage control efforts have come from all across the religious spectrum as Rabbis have been attempting to spin the move by Der Tzeitung in a more positive light.

    Controversial Rabbi Shmuly Boteach told Good Day New York this morning that by no means does Judaism consider women to be second class citizens. Rabbi Joseph Patasnik, Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis, an organization that represents Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Rabbis, explained on WABC radio this morning that the photo was doctored because it shows men and women in very close proximity to each other, something that goes against the Orthodox custom of maintaining a separation between men and women for reasons of modesty.

    In an interview with WABC 7 TV, NY Assemblyman Dov Hikind explained that the Charedi newspaper usually do not run pictures of woman on its pages.

    “They have set a certain standard. Some people might say well that standard is a little too high. Can’t you have some women? Maybe an elderly woman? Maybe a young child, but they have set a standard,” said Assemblymen Hikind.

    But in no way, as Hikind reveals, is it showing disrespect toward Hillary Clinton.

    “With what is going on in our society today, I can understand saying, ‘look, this is our message to everybody’ It has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of respect,” said Hikind.


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    48 Comments
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    VeyIzMir
    VeyIzMir
    12 years ago

    Correct me if I’m wrong. In continued bloodshed in Syria, with 800 dead and counting, barely creates ripples in the news. However, with the silly doctored picture minus Hillary Clinton creats a news Tsunami all over the world with 20,000 blogs on this. What’s wrong here?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    12 years ago

    Hikind and the others miss the point. We have nearly 200,000 Americans fighting in Iraq an Afghanistan against Islamic extremism. One of the most frequently cited aspects of that oppression is how they treat women in terms of denying them educational opportunities, voting rights, marriage rights etc. We read stories of women abused for walking alone outside their homes without male escorts, failing to wear approved headwear etc. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it is because the extremists and fanatics in the Chareidi community have moved in the direction of the muslim extremists in their treatment of women. The chutzpah to have blotted out the picture of the highest ranking woman in the U.S. government, who was dressed very modestly is beyond the belief or understanding of the average American and the large percentage of even frum American yidden. In the minds of Americans, they have made frum yidden not much different from the Taliban.

    shredready
    shredready
    12 years ago

    My family and many others that I know off have pictures from the alter heim as they say from munkatz to satmer and there they where the woman.

    so i think this is some new craziness

    12 years ago

    The rules of modesty and separation between genders in our orthodox way of life are way beyond the comprehension of even the average Joe and Jane America who have become desensitized to the visually provocative and indecent elements that are part and parcel of their daily lives. We won’t change them and (hopefully) they won’t change us. Let the media have their field day. Stop apologizing. Don’t worry about Clinton — she’s basking in the spotlight; imagine having considered her as sensuously enticing to our male readership! I’ll bet it’s been years since someone complimented her in this fashion and that she’s tickled pink about it.

    Nissim613
    Nissim613
    12 years ago

    Excuse me, Chutzpah? This newspaper has a policy of not showing women – all women, regardless of who they are or how they are dressed. If they didn’t show Golda Meir, then I see no reason why they would treat Hilary Clinton any differently.

    12 years ago

    What’s wrong here you ask?
    The adage “asay licha Rav” would include the very significant need for anyone and especially those who function openly in the public domain to create a person or committee(in this case an editorial board) to review actions before they are undertaken and encourage comment and even debate on whether those actions or activities uphold the highest religious and moral standards. In addition ,how a position plays both within the targeted population and to any number of outside perspectives must also be weighed.That is not to say that those perspectives need alter the position taken , but it must play a significant role in how any issue is framed.Were such a hierarchy developed,I could only hope that the intemperate nature of how this issue was reported would have been identified and would have been better thought-out.

    Passaicguy
    Passaicguy
    12 years ago

    Well said #2 . If they cant print an entire photo, then dont print a photo at all!

    zayin
    zayin
    12 years ago

    How come when Rueters cropped out the picture of the Arab w a bloody knife in his hand, during the Flotilla incident, everyone just threw that under the carpet???

    12 years ago

    To #9 -Luchinkup- If you don’t like the opinions expressed by #4 , then you are free to not read what he wrote. However, he is free to post his opinions. You cannot request that he not post his opinions in the future. Incidentally, do you have a degree in Psychology, or Psychiatry, since you referred to #4 as “psychopathic”. I didn’t realize that anyone had the ability to analyze another person, without actually observing them?

    BenZvi
    BenZvi
    12 years ago

    When Hillary Clinton came to New Square seeking support, she respected the customs and traditions of that village.
    She did not refrain from seeking Hasidic support although she was told that “in this village we do not shake hands with woman who are not our daughter or spouse”.
    When non Jewish, non Hasidic people come to enjoy the values of establishments such as B & H photo, they don’t expect Hasidic people, in addition to the excellent prices and service they receive, to additionally expect the salespeople to shave their beards, look and act like they are as American as apple pie.
    It doesn’t work that way. Not in our home. Not in our businesses. And not in the content written by and for US. The difference in this “doctored photo-gate” scandal seems to be that the American people, perhaps the entire world, has taken “mental ownership” of this iconic image, and somehow feel betrayed…
    almost as if we are showing it to THEM in different form and content. But guess what everybody: This was an INTERNAL YIDDISH LANGUAGUE NEWSPAPER!!!
    This is for OUR home! No apologies.
    Only anger for having been victimized by a marginalized Jew yemach sh’moi, who relishes his 15 min of infamy.

    hmmmm
    hmmmm
    12 years ago

    I have a feeling that Mrs. Clinton understands the issue more than our own self hating jews. There are rules of modesty in the jewish tradition. Yes , modern orthodox jews have twisted them. “der tzitung” keeps to these traditions. Kol hokovod to them. And it so happens to be , the editor is a total, complete fan of Mrs. Clinton. I will buy the paper this week so to show achdus and support for a fellow jew that has been driven crazy for a non issue.

    5towns
    5towns
    12 years ago

    The last time I checked, the Torah was full of the names of women, yet these publications do not write women’s names either.
    It is time to think whether this erasure of women has gone too far.

    Greener
    Greener
    12 years ago

    In Canada, if I remember correctly, Queen Elizabeth is on all the money, bills and coins. So there chasidim not only have to look at her image (to see the donomination) but they also actually fondle the image when they pay in the supermarket. Oy veh!

    12 years ago

    The whole thing is stupid. Their newspaper, their rules, although it would have made more sense to either crop the photo just showing POTUS looking at the screen, or omit it altogether. Sooner or later this insane policy was bound to come out. I know Hamodia has this same policy, did they airbrush out Hillary as well?

    As for IRL not looking at women: I am so amused when I am in WB, because men will rather stand in the middle of the street with huge trucks thundering down than “share” the corner of the sidewalk with me, an old lady who is dressed modestly with sheitel, sleeves, mid length skirt & stockings. I watched one young man nearly get hit last week. He jumped out of the way just in time & ironically, nearly bashed into me!!