There’s been a lot of buzz about the ultra-Orthodox Israeli newspaper HaMevaser photoshopping the women leaders out of a photograph of the unity march in Paris. People have had a number of reactions, largely informed by their already-existing positions on matters ranging from sexism to anti-Semitism. I’m going to share my personal reflections on these reactions with the understanding that, even if I seem contrary, I most emphatically do not agree with the altering of the photo. (We’ll come to my reasons soon enough.)<\/p>\n
I. Altering the photo was sexist or misogynistic.<\/p>\n
This is a common reaction. I certainly get it but I don’t necessarily agree with it. I’ll tell you why:<\/p>\n
I travel in fairly modern circles. The OU website has pictures of women. OU Torah, which I manage, has a number of women lecturers (though I wish we had more!). The OU is actively courting female leadership because there’s a large pool of untapped talent. Despite all this, there are those who think my group is sexist and misogynistic because there are some obvious differences between men and women in ritual life.<\/p>\n
There are some areas where we can and do (or should) accommodate. But there are other areas where our hands are tied. One of the ramifications of belonging to a religion is that it comes with the presumption that certain things are handed down from on high and are not within our power to change. In some areas, the Torah differentiates between men and women just as it does between kohanim, Leviim and Yisraelim (priests, Levites and Israelites), between first-born sons and other children, and between boys who are 13 years old and those even a day younger. People may consider me sexist or misogynistic for aligning myself religiously with a community that doesn’t count women in a minyan, but I certainly don’t feel sexist or misogynistic!<\/p>\n
For the record, women in our community do not necessarily feel oppressed by the lifestyle or by our religious practices. My wife \u2014 a baalas teshuva, who chose to affiliate with this community \u2014 dresses modestly, covers her hair and has never had an aliyah. But she also has strong opinions and is not afraid to voice them. If anyone ever questions her choice of lifestyle as condescending to women, she laughs in their face and asks: “Do I seem oppressed to you?”<\/p>\n
Let me take that one step further. I have a friend who lives in Saudi Arabia. (I have a number of Muslim friends and none of them want to kill you any more than you want to kill them.) A convert to Islam from Ohio, her move to Saudi Arabia was the culmination of a dream that is comparable to the way many Jews dream of moving to Israel. Of course, people questioned her conversion to Islam; for example, she chooses to wear hijab, which many think is oppressive to women but which, for her, is a religious duty. And her move to Saudi Arabia was bewildering to many people because that country is considered extremely sexist and misogynistic. While she would like to drive (forbidden to women in Saudi Arabia), and she feels the country is gradually coming around, in the big picture she is willing to overlook some flaws, because, for her, the good outweighs the bad.<\/p>\n
So, let’s bring this back to HaMevaser. Ostensibly, the reason they don\u2019t show women is because men shouldn\u2019t stare at women, which objectifies them. That seems a lofty goal, though their way of accomplishing it is rather off-putting to outsiders. I’m not prepared to leap straight for the labels of sexist and misogynistic because people apply those labels to my community and I feel they are unwarranted. Things that appear sexist are not necessarily motivated by a desire to marginalize women; sometimes they are simply the product of one’s faith, which we may consider beyond our control. Just because my circle has no problem with photographs of women, I will not presume that others necessarily consider the choice to be in their hands. I will likewise not assume that women within that community necessarily feel marginalized; many of them may well agree with their community’s standard. Even those who feel that such a policy is silly or unfair may be willing to overlook this particular quirk of their community based on a feeling that the good outweighs the bad. (Basically, I cannot believe that every woman in a community that is religiously to the right of mine is only there because of Stockholm syndrome when I know that such is not the case in my own community.)<\/p>\n
Now, I’m not naive. I’m sure that there are sexist and misogynistic men among the ultra-Orthodox. There\u00a0are also such people among modern Orthodox Jews, Reform Jews, Christians, atheists, and in all other\u00a0groups. I’m just not ready to automatically attribute that motivation to people I don’t know when there are\u00a0less malicious explanations that are equally plausible.<\/p>\n
II. The attention being given to this story is anti-Semitic or anti-Israel<\/p>\n
Some people feel that the attention being given to this is driven by an agenda. Jews were killed in Paris in\u00a0the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. There was an initial attempt to whitewash this attack as not\u00a0being motivated by anti-Semitism despite the statements of the shooter that he picked a kosher\u00a0supermarket because that’s where the Jews would be. (This echoes the sentiment popularly attributed to\u00a0bank robber Willie Sutton. When asked why he robbed banks, he reportedly replied, “Because that’s\u00a0where the money is.”) Then, HaMevaser wiped the women leaders out of the photo and the international\u00a0press really picked up on it.<\/p>\n
“Aha!” some would exclaim. “They’re only making a big deal out of this to make the Jews look bad!”<\/p>\n
So, running the story is anti-Semitic. Or it’s anti-Israel. Unless Jewish papers are doing it; then it must be\u00a0anti-Orthodox. (What if Orthodox papers are doing it? Do we even\u00a0have an anti-Charedi agenda? I must have missed a memo.)<\/p>\n
The reality is, HaMevaser did something that may seem perfectly normal to them but it looks really odd to\u00a0the rest of the world. They might do this 20 times per issue and it’s off the radar, but this was international\u00a0news and it got noticed. Other people are naturally going to see this editing job as anything from silly to\u00a0malicious. Seriously, how do you think Jews would react if another country photoshopped Benjamin\u00a0Netanyahu out of a picture? Well, Angela Merkel is a world leader, too. And to omit the mayor of Paris\u00a0from a Paris-based event? It’s going to ruffle some feathers.<\/p>\n
Now, again, I’m not ruling out the possibility that some people may use this story for anti-Semitic\u00a0purposes. I saw at least one article online that basically said: “Why is everybody making such a big deal\u00a0out of the fact that the US didn’t send a leader to the unity march when the real story is what the Jews\u00a0did?” Yeah, that’s the real story. (And, for the record, while Jews may have done it, “the Jews” didn’t.)<\/p>\n
But just because someone runs the story, that doesn’t necessarily make their motivations suspect.<\/p>\n
III. My problem with it<\/p>\n
I do have an issue with the altering of the photo: it’s a news photo. Photoshopping people out of a news\u00a0photo betrays a lack of journalistic integrity.<\/p>\n
People complain when Photoshop is used to digitally enhance some actress on the cover of a gossip\u00a0magazine or some model in an ad. There, the issue is often one of presenting unrealistic and unhealthy\u00a0body messages. If photoshopping art for an ad is questionable, it should be a no-brainer that altering a\u00a0news photo is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
We should have learned this lesson in 2011 when Brooklyn-based newspaper Der Zeitung erased Hillary\u00a0Clinton from a Situation Room photo. They discovered the hard way\u00a0\u2014 through public shaming \u2014 that\u00a0such manipulation violated the White House’s terms of use for photos. While HaMevaser is an Israel-\u00a0based newspaper, it’s inconceivable that they would not be aware of the negative attention that Der\u00a0Zeitung previously attracted.<\/p>\n
And really, we of all people should be sensitive to the manipulation of news photos thanks to the abuses\u00a0Israel has suffered due to photos being altered, cropped or taken out of context. Remember the famous\u00a0photo of an Israeli police officer “beating” a Palestinian youth on the Temple Mount? Except that the\u00a0“Palestinian youth” was an American student. And he wasn’t beating him, he was protecting him. And it\u00a0wasn’t on the Temple Mount. (There’s a gas station clearly visible in the background; there aren’t any gas\u00a0stations on the Temple Mount.) As is typically the case, the photo itself makes page one and the\u00a0correction appears on page 47 \u2014 if it ever appears at all!<\/p>\n
Those in the mindset of HaMevaser and Der Zeitung might justify editing a photo because, as they see it,\u00a0it’s for a noble purpose, i.e., modesty. Unfortunately, those who alter photos to frame Israel also think\u00a0they’re doing it for a noble purpose: to drive the Zionist occupiers out of Palestine. If we don’t want others\u00a0to justify a “pious fraud,” we should oppose the practice, period.<\/p>\n
There is a religious principle not to lie, even in the interest of what one sees as a good cause. The Torah\u00a0tells us “midvar sheker tirchak” \u2014 “keep far away from a false matter” (Exodus 23:7). Here’s an example\u00a0of this principle in action:<\/p>\n
Harry owes $100 to Albus, $100 to Severus and $100 to Hagrid. In each case, there’s no promissory\u00a0note. It’s Harry’s word against each of theirs, so collecting may be impossible. But then Albus has a\u00a0brilliant idea.\u00a0“Let’s say that Harry owes Severus $300. Hagrid and I will claim to be witnesses and now we’re sure to\u00a0win the case! Then, we’ll divide the money and each get the $100 he owes us.”<\/p>\n
Like I said, brilliant, right? Instead of losing, justice is served. Except for one thing: it’s not true. It’s\u00a0prohibited to argue a case in this fashion, even in an attempt to reach a just outcome.<\/p>\n
The same is true here. News photos represent something that happened. If what happened doesn’t meet\u00a0your standards for whatever reason \u2014 in this case, modesty \u2014 then don’t run the photo. But don’t\u00a0perpetrate a “pious fraud.” As noted, Jews and Israel are on the receiving end of that tactic often enough.\u00a0It’s in our best interest to decry the practice altogether rather than leaving it up to an individual’s discretion\u00a0as to which causes justify “doctoring the evidence.” In any case, however, the Torah’s dictum stands:\u00a0\u201cmidvar sheker tirchak\u201d \u2014 \u201ckeep far away from a false matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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