Offensive advertisements that are being displayed on and in
New York City subways, buses and Long Island Railroad cars
have spurred Agudath Israel of America to protest the ads to
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and to call on
concerned members of the Jewish public to do the same.
The Aguda is asking all who are offended by MTA ads, to
apprise MTA Chairman E. Virgil Conway of that fact. He can
be reached, according to Agudath Israel attorney Mordechai
Biser, by phone at (212) 878-7200, by fax at (212) 878-7030
and by mail at: Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 347
Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017. Rabbi Biser requests that
citizens who contact the MTA in writing fax him copies of
their correspondence at (212)-269-2843.
In recent days, however, Agudath Israel has received copies
of dozens of faxes about the ads from outraged citizens and
has reports of hundreds of calls that were made to the MTA
offices.
It was in response to the Aguda's complaints that new MTA
restrictions on ads were formulated in 1994 and tightened
several years later. A subsequent ruling by a federal
Appeals Court, however, assigned advertising space leased by
the MTA the status of a "designated public forum," severely
hampering its ability to refuse ads unless a "compelling
state interest" can be invoked.
Despite that, Agudath Israel maintains that the MTA is
legally able to defend the standards it put in place but not
enforced.
"The Authority could create a test case the next time a
patently offensive ad is proposed," says Agudath Israel
executive vice president for government and public affairs
Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, "for the purpose of establishing a
compelling governmental interest in keeping such ads off MTA
property. It could also easily refuse to run political ads,
thereby losing its status as a designated public forum and
allowing it to refuse ads without having to demonstrate a
compelling government interest."
Another suggestion that Agudath Israel has made in the past
to the MTA has been to at least accommodate the
sensibilities of the Orthodox Jewish community by keeping
offensive ads off buses that service Orthodox neighborhoods.
None of the suggestions has been accepted by the MTA.
In a letter Mr. Zwiebel sent this week, he details the
problem and reviews past discussions and strategy sessions
with Mr. Conway and MTA lawyers. "In terms of concrete
follow-up, however," Mr. Zwiebel writes, "a year and a half
has passed since our [last] meeting, and to all appearances
nothing has happened. On the contrary, [a number of ]
companies. have pushed the indecency envelope farther and
farther in their ad campaigns, and there appears to be
little if any concern [at the MTA] for the moral
sensitivities of religious and family-oriented communities
like ours."
