Ultra-Orthodox Jews Rally For a More Kosher Internet

Hugh Pickens writes "Michael Grynbaum writes that 40,000 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men filed through the gates of Citi Field to discuss the dangers of the Internet. For the attendees, many of whom said they came at the instructions of their rabbis, it was a chance to hear about a moral topic considered gravely important in the Hasidic community: the potential problems that can stem from access to pornography and other explicit content on the uncensored, often incendiary Web. Schlomo Cohen, 24, said he came to Citi Field because the rally was a good way to remind his community to keep temptation at bay. 'Desires are out there,' said Cohen. 'We have to learn how to control ourselves.' The rally was sponsored by a rabbinical group, Ichud Hakehillos Letohar Hamachane, that is linked to a software company that sells Internet filtering software to Orthodox Jews. Those in attendance were handed fliers that advertised services like a 'kosher GPS App' for iPhone and Android phones, which helps users locate synagogues and kosher restaurants. 'No one here is a Luddite who denies the manifold benefits that technology has brought to mankind as a whole,' says Eytan Kobre, spokesman for the event. 'But at a certain point, a mature, thinking individual stops and says, "I've got to make a cost-benefit analysis [of] what ways it is enriching my life, [and] in what ways it is undermining it."'"

Comments

Re:Listen to Schlomo (from TFA)

[Jason Levine]

While I was dating my wife (but still living with my parents), my parents belonged to an Orthodox temple. My wife (then-girlfriend) came over for a visit and my mother had to drop something off at the rabbi's house. When he heard that we were alone together, he got very worried and told my mother to go back home immediately.

This, plus other sermons the rabbi delivered, make me think that the ultra-orthodox live in fear that they are so weak-willed that they will give into desire/sin/whatever once the tiniest of opportunities present themselves. Thus, they make rules to prevent people from coming anywhere close to temptation. And then make rules to keep people from coming close to the rule which protects against temptation (lest they break that original rule). And then make rules to protect the rules which protect the rules which protect against temptation. Add in an adherence to tradition, even if the original source of temptation is gone, and this explains much of why they seem to have so many rules which don't make sense.

(Disclaimer: I'm actually pretty religious, but I decide which religious rules make sense for me to follow and ignore the ones that I think make no sense whatsoever.)

Re:...Or you could just not go to porn sites

[mooingyak]

Fundies are notorious for limiting other people's choices because they find them disagreeable. You make it sound like we don't already have plenty of experience with people of this mindset.

I used to work with several Jews of varying degrees of fundamentalism. All of them were at a minimum of the 'cannot do anything that resembles work, including using electricity during the sabbath' variety. And me, being completely non-religious, got along fine with most of them (one guy was just a total asshole, but that had nothing to do with his beliefs. The other Jews didn't like him either). Jewish fundamentalists tend not to be of the evangelical sort. They have their rules, and they abide by them, but they didn't give a damn whether or not I followed them.

I have no objection to a group that wants to organize an opt-in censorship system for their own use.