Thanks Reuters!

[SteveG]

What do we learn from this Reuters photo and caption?


REUTERS Caption: "People participate in a Jewish religious ceremony called Srifes Chumetz involving a ritual burning of a bonfire before the start of Passover in the Brooklyn borough in New York." REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

1) Jews go around setting large bonfires on the sidewalks for some obscure ritual reason.

2) All Jews wear funny hats, have long beards and read their weird books while doing it.

The actual story:
Some Orthodox Jews burn leavened food to clear their houses before the unleavened bread festival of Passover. Symbolic burning of not-kosher-for-Passover is usually done by Orthodox folks on an individual family basis and entails a few pieces of bread. Reuters picks the rare instance in Brooklyn where it is a minor community affair.

The message: Jews are funny-looking people who do weird unexplainable things and are not-like-you-and me. And should be considered to be strangers in our midst. Thanks Reuters (once again)

[SteveG]

This joins the blonde and red-headed Middle Eastern child refugee pictures in Reuters spinning its own pictures of reality. A long-standing tradition at Reuters.

[rjmacs]

These pictures all seem to strike you as deeply anti-Semitic.

When I see Reuters photos of Holi, am I supposed to think that all Hindus are bizarre Burning Man aficionados who think that funny outfits and powdered pigments are stylish?

That's not how any of these photos strike me. When I look at the photo above, it makes me curious to learn more. Granted, Orthodox garb doesn't strike me as weird because there are plenty of Orthodox folks where I live. Nonetheless, photos like this just remind me that the variety of religious and cultural practices all around us is amazing. I think it's awesome that in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States of America, you can have a controlled, contained bonfire on a city sidewalk as part of a community's religious observance.

What a country!

[Ombligo]

I didn't get that message at all, but then I'm not hyper-sensitive to everything involving the Jewish faith. I will allow that the cutline is pretty sparse, however that may be the publications editing of the full information given by the Reuters photographer.

[samintx]

Ombligo wrote:
I didn't get that message at all, but then I'm not hyper-sensitive to everything involving the Jewish faith. I will allow that the cutline is pretty sparse, however that may be the publications editing of the full information given by the Reuters photographer.

I'm with you, Ombligo. I'm not sure what this is supposed to invoke in me. I am more concerned about the strict religious Jews(forgot the name) in Israel vs the more democratic Jewish.

[SteveG]

@rjmacs

Yes, you are exactly right about Reuters' treatment of Holi festivities. Maybe it's a holdover from the British Reuters projecting the 'strange savages and beasts' of The Empire for your curiosity. They routinely practice this. It's not news or informative, it's some kind of slanted freak show.


PS- My neighborhood has a very (very) large Orthodox Jewish population and there are NO community leavened bread burnings and absolutely no large sidewalk bonfires. Reuters is deliberately distorting the truth.

[$tevie]

The No Parking Monday sign is a nifty detail. Nice shot.

[rjmacs]

Steve G. wrote:
@rjmacs

Yes, you are exactly right about Reuters' treatment of Holi festivities. Maybe it's a holdover from the British Reuters projecting the 'strange savages and beasts' of The Empire for your curiosity. They routinely practice this. It's not news or informative, it's some kind of slanted freak show.

Eye of the beholder, I guess. :dunno:

[rjmacs]

How do people here feel about "feature" pieces in the newspaper? Is there space for stories that aren't "hard news?"

[samintx]

Haredi Judaism is what you are seeing I think. There are orthodox Jews and then the Haredi sect of Jews. I am not Jewish but have read about this sect and they do many things Orthodox Jewish people don't do or observe….i.e. dress, segregation of the sexes, men don't work but the women support the family are a few of the differences I think. They burn bonfires in the streets! the pic is obviously the Haredi sect due to the dress observed.