(Click on pics to ENLARGE them) On April 7th YW posted a story with a picture of a defaced Oorah advertisement. Now the NY Times is attempting to explain the reason behind it. (More pics in extended article)
The first time, the boy ended up with a smear of black paint across his face. But after some digital alterations (adding curls on the sides of his face, shortening his haircut and buttoning his shirt higher at the collar) he was ready to try again.
The boy was not offended by these changes, because he is not real. Rather, he is an image on a Williamsburg billboard for Oorah, a children’s charity that wants to encourage donations of cars.
The group advertises in Williamsburg, leaders of the organization say, because the Hasidic Jews of the Satmar sect, many of whom live in the neighborhood, are generous donors. But the original billboard was defaced last spring, apparently because it offended the religious sensibilities of some of the Satmars. It stayed that way until the boy’s makeover was revealed on Jan. 3.
“They don’t want to see a clean-cut boy without the traditional peyos that their own children have,” Chana Nestlebaum, the group’s public relations director, said, referring to the young Satmars’ side curls. “It’s of importance that the children portrayed in their community look like their own.”
In something of a pre-emptive strike, spray-painted graffiti was incorporated into the new billboard, which stands over the corner of Lee Avenue and Keap Street. The message reads, “Zeit menadev aer car,” Yiddish for “Donate your car.”
“We thought that injecting humor might also defuse tension,” said Rabbi Eli Mintz, the director of Oorah, “and perhaps even work to our advantage as a marketing tool, and bring in more cars as a result.”
He may be right. The agency said that it had been getting been getting positive responses and that the billboard was being talked about in the streets and in the shuls.
No one is sure who painted over the first billboard. “Like in any group, there are some hotheads who are exercising the restlessness of their age,” said Marty Needelman, a lawyer who lives in Williamsburg.
The billboard was not the neighborhood’s only advertising casualty. Storefront signs are routinely taped or painted over because some consider them inappropriate. The Web address on a sign for a kosher-food delivery service, Cafe W, was blacked out; the Satmars don’t use the Internet.
Still, officials of Oorah are just relieved that the problem involving their billboard was resolved with a few keystrokes on a computer.
“We have a good relationship with the Satmar community,” Ms. Nestlebaum said. “They are charitable and supportive of our work.”
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20 Responses
this doesn’t seem right. Klal Yisroel shouldn’t act this way.
“Veahavta Lereacha kamocha”- which translates into “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” has come to mean,,Love your neighbor WHO is LIKE
YOURSELF. Chesed and tzedakah is extended to our Jewish brethren even if they dress. speak, eat. daven and even think differently than oneself.
Oorah doesn’t get it. To be successful in willy it’s important to add key wording; e.g. “MIR GAIT NUCH GELT” or “AH MOMMA IZ KRONK MIT TZVELVE KINDER”.
Also, Oorah could advetrise that they’re not getting any funding from the tziyonim.
Rabbi Eli Mintz is a tzadik gamor, and will be flexible with any billboard in order to raise needed funds for kiruv.
if kiruv kid look like willy kid then(in there eyes) why is there a need for Oorah? the willy’s have to understand that these look diffrent that’s why we have to be mekarev them!
I’m so embarrassed that yidden could destroy other people’s property like that. What a shame. You would think that there was some 1/2 dressed preetzadika girl up there! Don’t they see the difference? There’s nothing wrong with that ad. Common, you live in America and we have to all respect one another if our values are not exactly the same!
yisroel, overcome your anti-satmar hatred. malky, it was some bored kid, not an organized act.
No one in Williamsburg is responsible what one idiot have done, I knew williamsnaurg for over 25 years on TZADUKAH & CHASED INCLUDING BIKER CHOILIM they are # 1………… its no reasen to write against them.
Joseph.
I’m not against satmar. i just wanted to inject some humor into the situation. Who says that satmar defaced the billboard ?? It could have been Pupa, Krasna. Shopran or even a sheigetz from greenpoint.
To The True Says – Who said anything against Satmar? I’m not even saying anything chas vesholom against Williamsburg. I love all yidden, but I do not think it’s just one bored kid. I don’t think its an organised act from a lot of people, but I still think that there are many people that are not tolerant of people that are not as “frum” as them. Williamsburg is truly #1 in Tzaduka, chesed and their Bikur Cholim is unbelievable.
HI THERE…STOP ALL THIS SATMAR HATRED…LET ME TELL YOU ONE THING..THIS WAS AN ACT FROM ONE INDIVIDUAL MAN…NOT FROM THE WHOLE WILLY TOWN..
AND FOR ALL OF YOU WHO ARE AGAINST SATMAR…FOR YOUR INFORMATION: WHEN YOU NEED DESPERATE HELP, WHERE DO YOU END UP? SATMAR, SATMAR, SATMAR!!!! SO THEY HAVE THERE MISHIGASEN, DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU ALL HAVE TO GANG UP AGAINST THEM THE MINUTE THEY DO SOMETHING THAT YOU DON’T LIKE!!! YOU SHOULD ALL KISS THEIR TOES…IF NOT FOR SATMAR REBBE, THERE WOULD BE NO YIDDESHKEIT IN AMERICA TODAY!!!!
THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!!!
Just HAD to comment…
“IF NOT FOR SATMAR REBBE, THERE WOULD BE NO YIDDESHKEIT IN AMERICA TODAY!!!!”
Uh…nothing personal….while the Divrei Yoel was an undisputed Goan Olam and Gadol Hador, you should practice what you preach by doing what you yourself said “THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!!!”
Did you ever hear of Rav Aron Kotler?
The rest of the names of the Gedolim who were planting the seeds of Torah in America while the Rebbe was still in Europe can be added by the rest of the commentators.
PS: While there was NO Satmar bashing at all in the comments, and I’m trying to figure out WHERE you are getting that impression from – I’d like to tell you – that Williamsburg is the ONLY neighborhood that such a story can occur.
Feel free to hang a picture of a Satmar Yingle on ANY street in Lakewood, and it will never EVER be touched.
Waiting for your response.
YOU ARE A HUNDRED PERCENT RIGHT THAT THERE WERE OTHER GREAT GEDOLIM IN AMERICA…BUT YOU CAN NOT TAKE AWAY THE FACT THAT SATMAR REBBE PUT A CERTAIN FESTKEIT IN YIDDESHKEIT…BEFORE HE CAME IN PPL. STILL WORKED ON SHABBOS WITHOUT FEAR! ONCE HE CAME IN THE YIDDESHKEIT TOOK A TURN FOR THE BETTER. NOW I AM NOT TRYING TO FIGHT OVER WHICH GADOL IS GREATER…I AM ONLY HERE TO SAY THAT BECAUSE SATMAR HAS SUCH A BIGH POWER IN THE JEWISH WORLD AND THAT THEY ARE MORE FINATIC, WHENEVER THERE IS A SMALL CRITIC EVERYONE GANGS UP AGAINST THEM!!!!!!!!!!
IN THE END OF THE DAY EVERYONE STILL NEEDS SATMAR… AT THE TRADGEDY OF 9-11, WHO WAS STANDING ON THE BRIDGE HANDING OUT BOTTELS OF WATER AND MAKING SURE EVERYONE GETS HOME SAFE (WHETHER THYEY ARE SATMAR, LITVISH, SEPHARDIC, FRUM, OR NOT FRUM…EVEN TO GOYIM)? SORRY TO INFORM YOU BUT IT WAS NOT OTHER THAN “SATMAR”!
P.S HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT PICTURE…ONE CRAZY IDIOT DECIDED TO SCRAPE PAINT IT…CAN’T HELP IT..MY POINT WAS NOT THE PICTURE ..AGAIN IT IS THE FACT HOW EVERYONE JUMPS ON SATMAR WHEN THEY CAN
I completely agree, without the Satmar Rebbe ZTV’L ZY’U Yiddishkeit in America would not be a tenth of what it is today. Same applies to Reb Ahron.
Stop screaming in capital letters!
Rav Moshe Feinstein ztl” was the gadol & moreh derech for most American born & bred families that originated in the lower east side, etc. My grandfather zl” was from the first graduating class of RJJ in the 1920’s, the posek and manhig for the Jewish majority was Reb Moshe. Hang a photo of a Satmar yingle in the Lower East Side and people will call and ask where they should sent the tzedak to.
Those who claim it was some kid who painted the billboard-who was it and how do you know?
IT WAS A MARRIED MAN NOT A KID! FOR LOSHON HARA REASON THE NAME SHOULD NOT BE ANNOUNCED!
Thought it was Hatzalah giving out bottles of water on 9/11, are they SATMAR?
Editors note: Names removed
Satmar started Hatzolah.
many of the chesed organizations were started by Satmar. Many years ago a friend from Pittsburgh told me thst he wishes Satmsar Chassidim would move there – b/c of all the chesed organizations that they start up.