BySHIRA SILKOFF

The growing trend in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world to avoid publishing pictures of women in newspapers is impacting one woman's election campaign for a seat on the New York City Council.

Amber Adler is the second ever ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman to run for city council in the New York district of Brooklyn. She has recently run into challenges, however, as ultra-Orthodox publications, read by many of the people in the district she hopes to serve, have refused to publish her campaign ads.

The decision to abstain from publishing pictures of women is a fairly recent one in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) world, and has only become the accepted norm in the last several years. 
Adler isn't the only politician or public official to be censored in this way; German chancellor Angela Merkel was edited out of a photo in Israeli haredi newspaper HaMevaser in 2015, Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli was blurred out in a photo of Israeli coalition party leaders in the haredi B'Hadrei Haredim publication just last week, and in 2016 the English language Mishpacha Magazine faced intense backlash for publishing a photo of Hillary Clinton's silhouette.

Adler, a single mother of two, works in her home area of Southern Brooklyn to end the housing crisis and protect the rights of renters. She also hopes to expand family leave, lower domestic violence rates, make the streets cleaner and more accessible for people with disabilities, and priorotize public health.

Adler is a frequent activist in campaigns to free women whose husbands refuse to grant them their get - the document necessary for divorce according to Jewish law. She herself was an agunah ("chained woman") for two years, and supports a bill in the New York legislature which would make withholding a get a felony.
She was also involved in securing $170,000 in funding for public schools in New York City in order to improve and expand Holocaust education programs, and during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic when there was a global shortage of PPE, she secured thousands of free surgical masks to donate to front line workers.
NYC city council hopeful Amber Adler hands out free masks at the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
NYC city council hopeful Amber Adler hands out free masks at the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Credit: ANNA RATHKOPF)

 

However, the refusal of haredi publications to publish her picture could impact her ability to succeed in her race for election. The haredi world believes that women should not work in public roles, and should instead work internally and in the background, within their communities.

This perception could negatively impact Adler, as she will not be able to raise awareness for the issues that she is campaigning for if she cannot even have her campaign ads published in newspapers.

Due to the high percentage of haredi voters in her Brooklyn district, Adler's success in the June 22nd primaries may rely on the exact demographic of people who have been stopped from seeing her campaign ads and prevented from hearing her speak about the key issues she hopes to represent as a elected official.