Too Racy for Print, But Kosher for Shul
The JTA reports:
The Seattle Times refused to run an ad for a National Council of Jewish Women-sponsored production.
The Times said it would not print an ad for the Feb. 24 production of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” unless the artwork was altered, according to Lauren Simonds, the executive director of the council’s Seattle section.
The artwork comes from a poster showing a red valentine with what appears to be a vagina in the middle.
“They were very clear with us that they would not run the ad unless we altered the artwork,” Simonds said. “We were just as clear with them that that is not what the National Council of Jewish Women is about. It is not what the ‘Vagina Monologues’ is about.”
The newspaper maintains that it felt the ad wasn’t appropriate for its readership. But a local rabbi told the local alternative weekly that the artwork was done by a member of her congregation and that posters featuring it are on display in area synagogues.
What is it anyway with Jewish groups getting ads on women’s issues rejected?
UPDATE: JTA’s Ami Eden has found the artsy vagina image that caused the kerfuffle.
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.
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
