By Cynthia Gamel, , Seattle
tched our Jewish community undergo many changes. Some that I’ve agreed with and some that I haven’t. One that I became aware of many years ago was how the JTNews swung toward a much more liberal view. I recognize that the paper is trying to accommodate all walks of life within the Jewish community; however, I’ve always felt that at its core, JTNews was a family-oriented paper.
While flipping through the most recent issue I was offended by the advertisement displayed on page 30 at the bottom. The advertisement was for a Web site, “Jew-ish.com.” It shows two men, topless, in what looks to be a bedroom, with one of the men looking at the camera in a seductive, sexual way. Below the picture is a statement that says, “Hot people hook-up” (and something about politics). Now before you start to dismiss this letter as being written by some hatemonger of homosexuals, let me explain that I would be writing this letter too if the advertisement had portrayed a topless man and woman in the same pose, with the same wording.
One of the core values that we as Jews have is to be modest and humble, to not be so over the top as to bring embarrassment to ourselves or to the Jewish people as a whole. This ad, which is for a Web site that is part of the Jewish Transcript Publications, goes totally against this principle. You are advertising a Web site for where “Hot people hook-up.”
This is not Jewish, this doesn’t behave in a Jewish way, this is an embarrassment to us as a people. In addition, it goes completely against what I thought to be a wholesome, family newspaper. You are a publication that should be promoting and supporting a thriving Jewish community, not promoting a Web site where one can get their sexual needs fulfilled. My children look through your paper and this is not what I want them to be reading about in the Jewish community.
As with television shows that are so over the top that advertisers pull their ads, so should you not allow this type of advertisement in your paper. In an effort to appeal to all, you are clearly offending many. I for one will never purchase another issue of your publication and ask that you remove me immediately from your circulation.