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5 Iyar 5760 - May 10, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Worldwide Protest Against Indecent Advertising

by B. Rabinowitz

The Worldwide Rabbinical Committee for the Prevention of Indecent Advertising has recently launched a campaign against an advertising agency which has been plastering indecent, offensive advertisements on billboards throughout Israel. The entire Torah community has joined hands in an intensive battle to halt this dangerous trend.

Offices of the Worldwide Rabbinical Committee have received numerous complaints of late about such billboards throughout the country, in total violation of an explicit commitment by the company to refrain from such advertising. Torah-observant Jews are deeply disturbed by this phenomenon.

An agreement was reached a number of years ago with the advertising agencies to the effect that no indecent advertisements would be displayed in public. The settlement, achieved at the end of a prolonged battle, was conducted in light of the appalling situation prevailing at the time which caused unrest to many who saw how the street was being inundated by the worst kind of indecency.

Many prominent activists joined the struggle and made all-out efforts to curtail the offensive advertising. Meetings with the heads of the advertising agencies were held over a long period of time, during which they were apprised of the severity of the offense. At the end of an intensive campaign - - during which even non-religious groups, including women's organizations, decried such advertisements, an arrangement with the heads of the companies was made.

Despite the agreement, public billboards throughout the country have recently again been plastered with appalling posters. Many of them have been sharply censured by even secular Israelis. The office of the Worldwide Rabbinical Committee has received numerous complaints about this situation. They subsequently contacted the advertising agency, demanding immediate removal of the offensive posters.

The activists made it clear to the agency that these ads violated the agreement, and that if they continued to display the offensive posters the committee would have no choice but to take serious measures. Agency heads, trying to shirk their responsibility for the offensive ads, refused to remove them.

Committee activists have repeatedly contacted the agency, but to no avail. As a result, they had no choice but to adopt measures.

The committee is preparing to appeal to large food companies and others to cut their commercial ties with this advertising agency, in line with guidelines of the gedolei haTorah and all the botei din tzedek of the stringent kashrus networks.

The committee had recently become a New York-based worldwide organization, since it has been proven that the worldwide chareidi sector is united on this issue and complies with all of the guidelines of the gedolei haTorah against businesses which offend the sensitivities of chareidi Jewry in this way. The chareidi sector will take stringent measures against such companies on the consumer as well as on the commercial level. The measures include a ban on purchasing shares in these companies.

The committee has said that the cooperation of the chareidi sector will be total, since many food products from Israel are exported worldwide. They stress that a ban on these products and services marketed abroad by Israeli companies will encompass thousands of families, constituting a broad base for the struggle for the removal of indecent advertisement from our streets.

Though the chareidi community is most sensitive to this issue, the entire community will benefit from decent streets.


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