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23 Kislev 5761 - December 20, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Agudath Israel Leads Protest Against Indecent Ads in New York
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

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."

 

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