Hasidic newspaper photo: No place for Mrs. Clinton

You’ve seen the White House Situation Room meme from the Osama bin Laden killing. But have you seen it without Hillary Clinton in the picture?

Probably not unless you read the Hasidic newspaper, Der Tzitung, published in Brooklyn. According to Yahoo News:

The paper photoshopped Clinton, as well at the only other woman who could be seen in the room—Audrey Tomason, the national director of counterterrorism—out of the frame.

“Apparently the presence of a woman, any woman, being all womanly and sexy all over the United States’ counterterrorism efforts was too much for the editors of Der Tzitung to handle,” noted the prominent women’s blog Jezebel.

Indeed, “The Hasidic newspaper will not intentionally include any images of women in the paper because it could be considered sexually suggestive,” Rabbi Jason Miller explains in The Jewish Week. Though he notes that the publication’s “fauxtograpphing” may in fact be a graver act against their religious tenets: “To my mind, this act of censorship is actually a violation of the Jewish legal principle of g’neivat da’at (deceit).”

Personally, I’m offended by Hillary Clinton too. But I wouldn’t cut her out of the photo, certainly not if I ostensibly subscribed to journalistic standards.

My friend Sarah Pulliam Bailey, who is filling in for Cathy Grossman, has more on this at the USA Today religion blog. Enjoy.