Left: The iStock photo “Dramatic portrait of a young black-haired woman wearing a beret by the water.” Right: The cover photo on the Facebook page of The Exodus Movement. Image by iStock/Forward montage

By Aiden Pink April 1, 2019

The Exodus Movement, the conservative political group formerly known as “Jexodus,” has slowly built up a following since its launch last month – with help from promotion from President Trump.

It’s launched a fancy new website, and has Facebook and Twitter pages with a combined following of more than 6,000 users, despite criticism that it is an “astroturf” organization (i.e. the opposite of “grassroots”) with little to no actual support from within the largely-liberal American Jewish community.

The visuals that the organization chose for its Facebook and Twitter pages bear out this struggle. Rather than highlighting a member of the organization, The Exodus Movement’s cover image appears to be a stock photo – specifically, the first result when you search “Jewish woman” on the website iStock.

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What’s more, according to iStock, the photo – titled “Dramatic portrait of a young black-haired woman wearing a beret by the water” – was taken in Toronto, Canada, which would bely the organization’s claim of representing American Jewish Millennials upset with the Democratic Party’s alleged anti-Israel and anti-Semitic tilt.

This is not the first time in recent years that a newly-formed Jewish political group has been accused of using stock photos that inaccurately characterize support for their organization. The pro-Israel feminist group Zioness had to change its materials after complaints from a South African musician whose photo they had used for their logo.

In the coming month, The Exodus Movement’s founder and president, model and former Trump campaign staffer Elizabeth Pipko, will be speaking at Yeshiva University and in Boca Raton for the Republican Federated Women of South Florida.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

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