On a scorching August day, a number of Jewish women found themselves outside a Jerusalem apartment complex in fur coats and winter jackets. Standing in the nearly unbearable heat, they posed for photographers, walking, laughing, speaking earnestly and pretending it was a cold winter day. Sweating for a cause, they were some of the over 200 people who had volunteered to photograph or be photographed in mid-summer. In the midst of a pandemic.
Rewind to January 2019, a month before Covid hit Israel, where a conversation is taking place among Jewish businesswomen: “Searching for great stock images of Modern Orthodox women. Hair covered (in any style, don’t care) but doing normal things. I’ve done this search 1,000 times for different clients, and always have trouble. Happy to pay for photos, but I don’t want to search for “Jewish” or “Orthodox” or “hair covered” and get pics only of Charedi men, chanukkiyot, dreidels and Muslim women. Can you point me to a vendor who actually provides this?”
The post, on a working mothers’ Facebook group had over 120 comments with many other women expressing the same frustration. Photos of visibly religious Jewish women were nowhere to be seen. A major reason for this is because over the past 20 years, images of women have been increasingly censored from most Orthodox publications.
I received a phone call, later that day from a friend and colleague who said that we, Chochmat Nashim, an Israeli organisation that advocates for religions women’s rights and battles against our erasure, had to “make this happen.” I think I actually laughed and asked her why on earth she thought a non-profit organisation, run on a shoestring budget could create a photo bank. We discussed options and considered a few collaborations, but Covid hit, the organisation structure changed and it didn’t happen.
And then, in the interim two years of the pandemic, a number of things shifted. The erasure of women worsened, with some institutions asking women not to turn on their cameras on Zoom calls, a Torah website replacing images of female lecturers with chairs, and perhaps most relevant, our community around the world of people who want a healthier Orthodoxy grew tremendously.
When I opened the list of projects that had been put on hold, I saw the photobank in a different light. Perhaps, I thought, we could make this happen as a volunteer venture and instead of waiting/hoping/expecting Orthodox publications to return women to their pages, we would create the resource, for those who already want to show women’s images and also to show that far from something licentious, images of women in the community and family life are normal, natural, and positive representation of Orthodoxy.
I posted a flyer on our social media asking for volunteer models and photographers to put women back in the picture. Within 48 hours more than 200 people from all over the Jewish world volunteered. Women in their 60s, young couples newly married, entire families, single women and professional photographers volunteered to stand against the erasure of Jewish women.
Racheli Fuld was one of those who braved the 38 degree weather to represent winter shots. “I find the phenomenon of erasing women from Jewish publications to be highly disturbing. I wanted to do my small part to rectify it. At first, not buying publications where women were erased was the right thing for me to do, but when this opportunity came my way, I knew I wanted to be part of it. Hopefully, together, we can make a real impact and reverse this tragic misrepresentation of Judaism.”
There are some who say, “I don’t understand your need to be in images. Jewish women are so valued, our modesty is our crown.” To these people I say, this is not about me or you or our preferences. The fact is that the wholesale erasure of women and girls, which I have studied over a decade, has real life consequences in women’s physical, financial, and religious health. It is not about a picture. It is about our wellbeing. Individually and as a community.
The Jewish Life Photo Bank is our response to this erasure. It is now live, has more than 600 images and is growing. Additional photoshoots are scheduled in Israel and in the US, with Canada and the UK in the works. Photographers and individuals who want to contribute their images can do so. To protect our models and photographers, the images are available to registered users who agree to our terms of service.
We are actively seeking images of Jews of Colour, visibly disabled individuals and teens. We are dependent on volunteers, so contributions of images and funds are very welcome. It took them 20 years to erase us, it is our hope that this photobank is the catalyst to a far shorter process of bringing women back into the picture.
jewishlifephotos.com
