By MICHELE CHABIN
c. 2011 Religion News Service

(RNS) An ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspaper in Brooklyn deleted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from a White House photograph of top officials monitoring the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The Yiddish-language Der Zeitung removed Clinton and Audrey Tomason, a top counter-terrorism adviser, from the photo, which is quickly becoming an iconic image. The photo shows the White House’s Situation Room during last week’s raid on bin Laden’s Pakistani compound.

The doctored photo was first noted on Failed Messiah, a Jewish blog.

Hamodia, another Brooklyn paper serving ultra-Orthodox Jews, also deleted the women from the photo, said Surie Ackerman, a former editor at the paper.

“Hamodia cropped out Clinton while Der Zeitung airbrushed,” Ackerman said. “It’s well-known that haredi (ultra-Orthodox) papers believe women should not appear for reasons of modesty, both for men and women.”

Ultra-Orthodox Jews do not own TVs, read only their communities’ newspapers, and rarely surf the Internet.

“They’re very insular,” Ackerman said. “They probably had no idea this was such an iconic photo.”

Der Zeitung’s editor was unavailable for comment.