Rubbing Women Out of History, Hasidic Style

Last week, Brooklyn-based Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung rubbed Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason out of the now iconic photo of the White House War Room. Today, as discovered by blogger and friend of Heeb Shmarya Rosenberg, it turns out yet another Hasidic weekly, De Voch, felt the display of women in power was far too racy for Jewish eyes and published a similarly Photoshopped picture.

But don’t worry, they didn’t mean anything by it! In Der Tzitung’s official response, they let us know that it’s the rest of us that just got the wrong idea:

The allegations that religious Jews denigrate women or do not respect women in public office, is a malicious slander and libel…. The Jewish religion does not allow for discrimination based on gender, race, etc…. Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women, and we regret if this gives an impression of disparaging to women, which is certainly never our intention. We apologize if this was seen as offensive.

No harm, no foul. In the great Jewish tradition of not denigrating women, we thought we should get in on the photo altering craze that’s sweeping the Diaspora. So here you have it, a brief and female-free Hasidic view of history.

Photoshoppery by Harrison Freeman