Wednesday, May 11, 2011

World's worst apology

Di Tzertung wasn't the only publication to delete Hillary from histoy. Di Voch, a Hasidic glossy, pulled the same trick. When no one noticed, they went to VIN with an attention grabbing apology:
We fully respect the President of the United States and his entire Staff, regardless of their gender.

In times when slander, gossip and immodesty dominate coverage in many publications, we, following our modesty rules, try reporting Rabbinical and worldly events in the most proper and unbiased manner.

Avoiding pictures of women in our paper is in no way representing an ideology or race inequality, it is following the guidelines of our publication to avoid pictures of women in our magazine.

We do apologize to the affected persons who may have felt offended; it was unintentional.

Those who brought this into the spotlight citing racial reasons, is totally absurd! It was we (the Orthodox newspapers and publications) that are credited for much of Clinton’s Orthodox coverage in the primary elections. It was altered for the one and only reason; our rules of modesty not to publish pictures of women, regardless of their stature or modesty.
Can't these newspapers find someone who speaks English to write their apologies? I don't fault them for being illiterate in English, but I do think its insensitive and incorrect to publish an apology that requires so much work from the reader. I shouldn't have to read it 6 times to work out what they're saying.

 Anyway, this apology is terrible. It doesn't seem to understand teh difference between race and gender, and like Gil Student they completely miss the point. This was never about Hasidic stringencies regarding women. It was about their willingness to insult women in pursuit of those stringencies. We all agree that its important to get to minyan on time, but would you countenance a car accident caused by someone who was rushing to shul? Same thing here. Avoid women all you want, but do it without slapping them across the face.

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