Some Jews here have voiced their opposition to an outdoor advertisement campaign against AIDS.
The advertisement depicts a nude black man and white woman, who is in her underwear and is holding a condom. In the ad, the woman is saying to the man: “If you put something on, I take something off.”
The Dutch health minister, Elizabeth Borst, said she would not take any steps to thwart the campaign.
The minister said public health is more important than some people feeling offended.
“The freedom of choice is a very important right to me,” Borst said. “For the cause of public health we need to have an open eye for people who like to have changing sexual contacts.”
Anonymous Orthodox Jews who found such a poster in a bus shelter in front of an Amsterdam synagogue put a sticker over the nude bodies with a text promoting monogamy between husband and wife.
The Central Israelite Consistoire for the Benelux, the umbrella body for Jewish groups in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, filed and complaint at the district attorney’s office in Amsterdam.
Also, individual Jews have complained to the city government.
In addition, Christian political parties here have deemed the advertisements offensive.
Fervently Orthodox Jews in Israel and in the United States have complained and even attacked similar kinds of billboards in outdoor advertisement campaigns.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
