The Orthodox Union is known mainly for its certification of foods as Kosher. Its OU symbol of kashrut is trusted by most observant Jews. They do good work. I'm not criticizing their mission.
It's just that when I was searching through Google for some resources on Jewish values, I came across a page on the OU web site with this banner for their Shop OU resource:The face on the right is that of Harav Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Now I knew the Rav. I studied with him for four years. I used to drive him to the airport on Thursdays after our Talmud shiur. Call me picky. Call me old-fashioned. I'm pretty sure the Rav would not want his image used in a marketing banner on the Internet.
Ditto for the RCA, the Rabbinic Council of America, the main professional association of Orthodox rabbis. They sell a portrait of the Rav
on their web site for $10. And lest you get any ideas about just downloading the image for free, they mark it clearly off limits.
Minor complaints you say. So nu, you can even call me a curmudgeon. But I think this is how the Rav would react if he knew what people were doing now with his image.
See Samuel Heilman's article in Jack Wertheimer (editor), Jewish Religious Leadership: Image and Reality (JTS, 2005) where he discusses the usage of such images -- including discussion of the Rav -- within contemporary Orthodoxy.
ReplyDeleteThanks so very much for taking your time to create your blog. Excellent work
ReplyDelete"I used to drive (the Rav) to the airport on Thursdays after our Talmud shiur."
ReplyDeleteDid you ever play Madonna albums while you were driving him?