Image by Getty Images

Israel’s Government Advertising Agency announced that it will stop censoring Haredi women in photos, following protests by feminist groups, YNet News reported.

The Ministry of Social Equality launched an Israeli photo database in December 2017 that sought to represent different cultures in government publications, offering pictures of Israeli families by sector: Jewish, Arab and Druze.

Pictures of the Haredi sector did not feature women at all, YNet reported. Women didn’t even appear in images of a Shabbat table.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Noting the prejudice, feminist activists turned to Deputy Attorney General Dina Silber and the director of the Government Advertising Agency, spurring the director to declare that Haredi pictures would be changed to include women.

“The Government Advertising Agency and the Ministry of Justice agree that the exclusion of women from the public sphere is a grave and unacceptable phenomenon, and that women should not be excluded from government advertising for the Haredi population,” read a statement from the agency.

The statement continued: “As such, (the agency) will not make adjustments to publications intended for the Haredi sector that discriminate between women and men, and if media outlets refuse to publish the advertisement, the publication will not be carried by that media source.”

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount