Ads Featuring Women Return to Jerusalem
Advertisements featuring women are beginning to appear on billboards in parts of Jerusalem, where the absence of female images had prompted a public outcry earlier this year.
In the last few days, the television show “Hatzuya” has put up ads that include women, though they appear to be limited to non-Haredi neighborhoods. And the National Transplant Center, also known as Adi, will be relaunching its ad campaign in Jerusalem today – women included.
The transplant center was one of many companies and institutions that rendered women invisible on Jerusalem billboards, buses and bus stops, out of fear that ultra-Orthodox extremists would vandalize advertisements that offend their sensibilities.
“We’re very happy that the advertising campaign is being relaunched and welcome Adi’s decision,” said Rabbi Uri Ayalon, one of the leaders of the protest against eliminating female images. “It shows that public awareness can have results, and so we need to continue the struggle.”
Ayalon was involved in recent demonstrations against the trend, as part of which some protesters threatened to cancel their organ donor cards. Now that the transplant center has restored women to its ads, Ayalon called on the public to once again sign up for Adi’s donor card.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO