Last week, a group of individuals wrote a letter urging The Jewish Link to refuse ads that intentionally exclude images of women, arguing that such ads send “dangerous” messages (“Stop Erasing Women: A Call for Equal Representation in Jewish Link Ads,” March 20, 2025). They cited two specific ads, though one did, in fact, include a picture of the female entertainer alongside the male singers, so I guess that just leaves one ad in question.
It’s common that advertisers aim to market themselves in as many publications as possible. If a company has limited resources, it makes sense to design an ad that can run in multiple outlets. Therefore, in order to run an ad in, for example, Mishpacha as well as The Jewish Link, that might mean creating an ad that does not include pictures of women. This isn’t about making a political or sociological statement; it’s simply about efficiency.
And while the letter’s authors may disagree with Mishpacha’s policy to not publish pictures of women, I believe that demanding The Jewish Link refuse such ads is misguided for two reasons.
First, on a more technical level, their argument falls apart when flipping through The Jewish Link, where nearly every page features women and girls in articles and ads. The claim that the paper is sending a “dangerous message” by running a single ad without women is unconvincing.
Second, on a more fundamental level, if the authors are going to claim that even one ad without women is “dangerous,” I would say that this ideology could be just as harmful as the one they are opposing. The insistence that The Jewish Link include ads “containing pictures of men and women or no pictures at all” may suggest that unless a person’s image appears
publicly, their contributions lack value. Certainly, omitting someone’s name from coverage is wrong, however, to go as far as to say that their picture always has to be printed, I think feeds into the need for external, public validation. Shouldn’t our children learn the lesson that their contributions have value with or without a picture to prove it?
The essence of tznius for both men and women lies in the realization that one’s self-esteem and self worth must be internally rooted—not from seeing one’s picture in a newspaper.
If the authors take issue with a publication that consistently excludes women, they should write to Mishpacha and other publications with similar policies. But readers of The Jewish Link should not be fixated over one or two ads that don’t include women, claiming that The Jewish Link’s efforts to promote women in their publication is “not enough.” Rather, they should be thanking The Jewish Link for creating a space for men and women to be featured, and focus on teaching young girls and boys to foster self-esteem and positive self-worth without needing pictures in the newspaper to validate them.
