Ms. Magazine — a feminist monthly founded by Jewish Gloria Steinem — won’t accept a display ad that celebrates the postion of women in the government of Israel.
The ad (above), which features photos of the president of the Supreme Court of Israel, Israel’s Foreign Minster, and the Speaker of the Knesset (parliament) — all women — was apparently too controversial for Ms.
Here’s the AJC’s take:
Ms. Magazine Blocks Ad on Israeli Women
January 10, 2008 — Ms. Magazine has long been in the forefront of the fight for equal rights and equal opportunities for women. Apparently that is not the case if the women happen to be Israeli.
The magazine has turned down an AJCongress advertisement that did nothing more controversial than call attention to the fact that women currently occupy three of the most significant positions of power in Israeli public life. The proposed ad (The Ad Ms. Didn’t Want You To See) included a text that merely said, “This is Israel,” under photographs of President of the Supreme Court Dorit Beinish, Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.
“What other conclusion can we reach,” asked Richard Gordon, President of AJCongress, “except that the publishers − and if the publishers are right, a significant number of Ms. Magazine readers − are so hostile to Israel that they do not even want to see an ad that says something positive about Israel?”
What can justify such censorship?
— Dennis Wilen
Note: I come from an AJC family. My Mom was the Congress’ executive director in Philadelphia when I was a teenager. I marched with the AJC and Martin Luther King on August 28, 1963.
