I am responding to the recent article depicting the social injustice of omitting women from newspaper ads or dinner journal announcements (“Another Modest Proposal,” June 6, 2019).

Ladies and gentlemen, what we have seen in the past 20 years or so in the ultra
Orthodox segment of our population is not “a different view” or just “a different standard of modesty.”

What we are seeing, sadly, is a trend towards fanaticism.

This trend takes many forms. One is discrimination against women. Omitting women’s pictures from Jewish publications, effectively making women invisible is one phenomenon. Another example is the rule that children of a mom that drives are not accepted into a long list of schools. This rule is enforced in Monsey.

This is a dangerous trend my friends that has little to do with Judaism or modesty and everything to do with becoming more cult-like. Omitting women’s pictures from Jewish publications is none other than discrimination against women in the guise of Torah. Plain and simple. And there is good reason for both men and women to be worried.

Extremism is never good and never healthy, which is why many young ultra Orthodox people are leaving the fold completely or leaving those sects. They’ve had enough.

I personally have stopped buying Jewish publications that omit women’s pictures. They are no longer relevant to me and I will not support them. I challenge all the people who are reading this to do the same.