For "Modesty" Reasons, Woman Replaced With Dwarf In Ultra-Orthodox Bank Ad

Bank Hapoalim has removed actress Alma Zack from its billboard advertising in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak and other haredi areas and replaced her with an image of the "Dan Haschan" dwarf.

 

Woman replaced with dwarf in bank ad
Actress Alma Zack removed from Bank Hapoalim billboard in ultra-Orthodox areas. 'It's a matter of professional judgment,' bank says in response. Haredi journalist: Our goal is not to erase women; it's just a matter of lifestyle
Meirav Crystal • Ynet

Bank Hapoalim has removed actress Alma Zack from its billboard advertising in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak and other haredi areas and replaced her with an image of the "Dan Haschan" dwarf, blogger Ido Kenan has revealed.

"Why is the bank cooperating with extreme haredi elements that push women out of the public space in the name of modesty?" Kenan asked in his Room 404 blog.

"The bank said in response that 'Bank Hapoalim respects all its customers, regardless of their religion, race and gender and uses professional judgment only when it comes to advertising.' This is for the information of the free men and women whose money supports this bank."
 
Approached by Ynet, the bank offered the exact same comment. The pictures presented here are of ads posted on Bnei Brak's Kahanman Street, near the Givat Shmuel bridge. Similar ads were spotted in mixed areas in Jerusalem.
 
A Givat Shmuel female resident told Ynet, "I'm religious, not haredi, and I'm very annoyed by this. But I do know that these ads were posted in order to appease the haredi public opinion, not in order to hurt my feelings."

According to the blog, other famous women – including Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni and Knesset Member Shelly Yacimovich – have been removed in the past from ads presented in haredi areas.
 
It's a known fact that companies cover exposed body parts in ads presented in haredi areas, but the phenomenon of "deleting" women is relatively new. Ultra-Orthodox newspapers even avoid mentioning the first names of senior female politicians.

Haredi public unfamiliar with actress

Ari Galahar, a journalist who writes for Ynet about haredi advertising, explains. "I ran into this billboard in Jerusalem, in a mixed area. They removed Alma Zack from the sign because it's unconventional to show images of women on the haredi media.

"There are still newspapers that publish pictures of women, but only under the age of three. Yated Ne'eman issued a special supplement for women for Passover, which did not include even one picture of a woman.

"And there's another reason: The haredi public is unfamiliar with Alma Zack. Only few people know her, she means nothing to them and they can't identify with her character."

So they don't know Erez Tal (the man appearing in the ad) either.

"Yes, but they won't change the entire concept of an ad presented in mixed communities. Because of the haredi sector's sensitivity, they'll remove the woman."

Do women cause such a provocation?

"I wouldn't say so. In principle, there's a desire to avoid sexual issues in street ads as much as possible.
 
"The stricter people won't even look at women on the street. They'll move their eyes to the other side and lower their gaze when talking to a woman. Not because they don't respect woman, on the contrary, 'The Honor of the King's Daughter is Within.' Because of modesty."
 
"A billboard is the opposite of 'The Honor of the King's Daughter is Within'. It turns a woman into an icon, a symbol. And in the haredi society it's uncustomary to see a woman, to turn her into a character, into a product's presenter.
 
"Haredi women can serve in senior roles, as CEOs, but it's true that if a woman wants to be a public figure in the haredi sector, it'll be much harder for her."

Is there a desire to hide women?

"There's no goal to erase women and ignore their existence. It's a certain lifestyle, which some want to act according to. And even in the haredi society – those who don’t want to don't act accordingly."

Modifying ads for different geographic, socio-economic or ethnic communities is standard practice in America and in many other places, so there is nothing inherently wrong with an Israeli company doing it for haredim.

What is wrong is the hyper modesty that has taken over the haredi community.

There is no basis in Jewish law – and certainly none in the last 1000 to 1500 years of Jewish history – for haredi demands to remove all women, even three-year-old girls, from billboards, magazine ads, textbooks and even coloring books.

This craze to be more 'modest' than the next haredi started with Hamodia, the Ger hasidic newspaper, which expanded its circulation into the wider haredi community and, through the old I'm more haredi than you are game, imposed its bizarre modesty standards on one haredi publication after another.

How sick are the Ger hasidic community's modesty standards?

Men are told not to engage in any foreplay with their wives and to end the entire sex act – which may only take place on two Friday nights per month – in a moment or two.

And that's only a small part of it.

No Foreplay, No Affection, No Love – Sex And The Married Gerrer Hasid.

Hole In The Sheet: Sex Rules Of Gerrer Hasidim.

Comments

[corn popper]

Boruch atta Hashem...shelo asanee Gerrer (male or female).

[Leibel Schenkel]

Hey, they could have put Shmaya on the billboard, or me!!!!

[Maple Bacon]

Why does the Israeli flag look looooooonger, or does the dwarf make it seem that way?

[seymour]

on the zev show about editing females out of pictures a woman called to say there is a heride coloring book that has no woman or girls

she said that the was a picture for children to color of a seder but there was no mother, sister it only had the men at the seder

[seymour]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2892/1/

check out for more editing

[Yosef ben Matitya]

but hey, look @ the bright side!
the flag wasn't burned,
they seem to tolerate simcha on israel independence day!

[Bench Kvetcher]

The goyim also lower their gaze when talking to women and talk to their breasts

[Alter Kocker]

Ultra-Orthodox/Haredi=Latent Homosexuality.
Just saying.

[David]

Its strange that the advertisement has the Israeli flag and yet the frumma would be happy to burn it.

[Yoily Weiss]

This is really stupid. It's against halacha to place a picture of a pretty woman in a place where many Jewish men will pass by. If anyone thinks that's misogyny, it's their problem. We frum people don't have to prove our heterosexuality by posting billboards with women. It's enough that we have a higher percentage of heterosexual marriages than most societies.

[Gefilte Fish]

According to Rav JRR Tolkien, non-dwarves cannot distinguish between male and female dwarves. Therefore, there is a 50-50 chance that the dwarf in question is actually female.

[Maple Bacon]

Jewgro, please! It's against halacha for women to be attracting NOT attractive.

Haredi horny horn dogs.

[emmylou]

The "replace the woman with a dwarf" routine again. That's the oldest trick in the book.

[Strelnikov]

@maple bacon
I'm guessing it's some visual way of showing that Bank Hapoalim "stretches" their customers' shekels with good interest rates or something similar. It doesn't matter, the "scandal" that a woman was in the ad overshadows it.

[David]

The "replace the woman with a dwarf" routine again. That's the oldest trick in the book.

Posted by: emmylou | May 16, 2011 at 05:41 PM

So will all the male frumma get excited now whenever they see a dwarf in a picture, knowing it is really a substitute for a woman?

[seymour]

This is really stupid. It's against halacha to place a picture of a pretty woman in a place where many Jewish men will pass by. If anyone thinks that's misogyny, it's their problem. We frum people don't have to prove our heterosexuality by posting billboards with women. It's enough that we have a higher percentage of heterosexual marriages than most societies.

Posted by: Yoily Weiss | May 16, 2011 at 05:00 PM

and you have a very high rate of child molesters

[ergo proxy]

So what!!!! Like if it was the first time this happens. Shamrya you need a REAL hobby. How about cycling?

[ergo proxy]

seymore, Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, uncles or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances such as 'friends' of the family, babysitters, or neighbors; strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases.

So it happens in every community regardless of religious belief, social class, etc. Of course, being one of shamrya's minions, I don't expect less from you. ;)

[Jay]

I wonder if they used doc, sleepy, dopey, grumpy or charedy?

[David]

Is this a frumma dwarf? Its hard to see if he has peyos and tzitsis.

[who knows]

"woman replaced with a dwarf"? I looked twice and could not see any difference between the pictures. I'm sure the haredi public will not see any difference as well.

[David]

his is really stupid. It's against halacha to place a picture of a pretty woman in a place where many Jewish men will pass by.

Which Halacha is this (if modestly dressed)? Or do you make it up as you go?

[emmylou]

David,

I would imagine so. Dwarf=woman with exposed forearms. Imagine if her elbows were showing. They'd have to step it up to a troll picture.

[E]

Why does everyone give a damn about what goes On halfway around the world? Do you live there? So they don't put a woman up big fuckin deal. It seems to me that it bothers you people that they can be holier than you.
You see it hurts you that they don't want to get atracted to other women, that they want to save it for there wives and you can't do that so you try to knock them down.
You see it doesn't bother me what they do. I do what I want and they do what they want. I don't think it's bec they dont respect woman. However I don't feel the need to bash it like you people do. It's a free world let them do what they want. And you do what they want.
And I guarantee you this. There is less sexual problems in there places then in your places and it's bec of this.

[Shmarya]

And I guarantee you this. There is less sexual problems in there places then in your places and it's bec of this.

Posted by: E | May 17, 2011 at 12:33 AM

That would be news to professionals who deal with those communities.

They have significant problems with child sexual abuse, incest, sexual dysfunction, etc.

[emmylou]

Less sexual problems?!?! Are you sure?

[Jeff]

We frum people don't have to prove our heterosexuality by posting billboards with women.

No - you have to protect it by airbrushing them out.

It's enough that we have a higher percentage of heterosexual marriages than most societies.

If I understand this nonsensical statement correctly (that is, if I understand what it is you were trying to say), that's because of the social pressures placed upon you. Try not getting married at eighteen and pumping out a dozen children. See what happens.

[Jeff]

Why does everyone give a damn about what goes On halfway around the world? Do you live there? So they don't put a woman up big fuckin deal. It seems to me that it bothers you people that they can be holier than you.

It bothers us that the Haredim are living in a fantasy world of their collective making, and they're doing it on the public dime. They're draining Israel financially. It will be bankrupt within a generation because of them.

It also bothers Shmarya and some of the others here (if I may presume to speak for them) that Judaism has been hijacked and corrupted by psychopaths and control freaks who've created a belief system and a subculture so far removed from Judaism that it qualifies as a separate religion. The "alter heim" wasn't like this, but you won't believe that, because it isn't what your holy gedolim have told you.

You see it hurts you that they don't want to get atracted to other women, that they want to save it for there wives and you can't do that so you try to knock them down.

No - rather it hurts you to consider the alternative. You're terrified that we may be right. (By the way, you forgot to mention how jealous we are of you and your holy Torah.)

[Jeff]

And I guarantee you this. There is less sexual problems in there places then in your places and it's bec of this.

Are you f*cking KIDDING me? God God, how can anyone be so oblivious and function in the world?

[Dovit]

It's against halacha to place a picture of a pretty woman in a place where many Jewish men will pass by. If anyone thinks that's misogyny, it's their problem.

Now imagine it this way:

It's against Christian law to place a picture of a jewish person in a place where Christian people will pass by. If anyone thinks that's anti-semitism, that's their problem.

I'm sure you would have no problem if this started to happen, right? You certainly couldn't be hypocritical, could you??

[Danya Baumacher]

This is just one of the many reasons that cases of spousal and acquaintance rape are soaring in the charedi community. Just ask the Jerusalem cops!

[Seraphya]

http://twitpic.com/4z6po6