Before the Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, Agudath Israel of America called on MTA’s leadership to curtail the ubiquitous advertisements for an adults-only “museum” it carries on the front of its fleet of New York City buses, warning that the ads are offensive to many riders, troubling for parents, and inappropriate for children who encounter them in public spaces.

Avrohom Weinstock, Agudath Israel’s Chief of Staff, delivered testimony at the MTA board meeting, urging the agency to reconsider its role in promoting an adult-oriented venue on mass transit vehicles used and viewed daily by families, children, and commuters.

This testimony followed months of advocacy, including a four-page legal letter the Agudah sent to MTA leadership last month.

Significantly, in a written response to the Agudah’s outreach, the MTA stated that the offensive ads would rotate off the MTA system within 60 days. While Agudath Israel has not been shown the contract, several news sources have reported that the MTA’s sizable contract with the museum for its city buses was scheduled to run through the end of the year.

This development is even more meaningful because, for its next phase, the museum stated it was planning to expand its advertising campaign with the MTA to span the entire exterior of buses and include more explicit imagery. Pushback at this, more limited, phase was therefore even more important.

Agudath Israel urged the MTA to apply its own advertising standards, which restrict advertisements that promote certain adult-oriented services, and includes a directive to “maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all MTA employees and customers, including minors, and that are respectful of New York City’s multicultural, multi-ethnic, religiously diverse population.” The Agudah does not believe that this campaign complies with these standards.

“Please curtail this offensive ad campaign” Mr. Weinstock said, “and dialogue with representative groups to head off such situations in the future.”

“I want to acknowledge numerous individuals and elected officials, including Assemblymen Kalman Yeger and Simcha Eichenstein, and Councilwoman Inna Vernikov who expressed the community’s deep concerns with these pervasive ads and urged the MTA to have them withdrawn,” said Mr. Weinstock, “and appreciate the MTA for engaging with us. There is more work to be done.”

“Many of the things the Agudah works on relate to material initiatives, like increasing security funding to NY nonpublic schools from $4.5 to $90 million since a decade ago, or playing a pivotal role in the passage of the federal scholarship tax credit,” said Rabbi David Zwiebel, Agudah’s executive vice president. “These are, of course, critical to the financial and safety needs of our community and mosdos. Yet here is an advocacy item with no material benefit to anyone, and yet so important to us because it helps, in some small way, parents to raise their children today with kedusha. That says something very special about who we are as a community.”