You Don't Need a Bigger Generator Just A Smarter One! world Generator Systems Online Anarchy? There is No Converrient Time to Lose p For haredi Orthodox, Internet threat hearkens back to the Enlightenment. ER Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York FREE NO OBLIGATION ESTIMATE T ELECTRICAL CONTRACTING .}.[ L-I L:z. c 1.-1 - L k.:- , L- u RENAISSANCE MEDIA SOLUT ION p, Full Service Custom Publishing g 11 °"_ „ ! S 41 .11. How can we help you? Flag Banners Publications Tapper's Diamond & Fine Jewelry Diamond Buying Guide Wall and Window Graphics Video Production Marketing Services Creative Services Editorial Services Pre-press Production Social Media Magazines Newspapers Corporate Identities Annual Reports Ad Campaigns Mail and postage Project Management Business Consulting Data Management Telemarketing Contact iCeviss fitroovett tag' Debbie Scfry7r , :-- 29200 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 110 Southfield, MI 48034 248.354.6060 148, 626,9110 on the Boardwalk i 6879 Or and Lake 30 June 7 • 2012 Wett Ribornftetd o the outside observer, the haredi Orthodox anti-Internet rally at New York's Citi Field may have looked uniform: a single mass of black hats, white shirts and brown beards. But the crowd at the May 20 event was far from homogeneous. Yiddish speakers sat next to Anglophones. Chasidim from Brooklyn mixed with "yeshivish" haredim (non- Chasidic) from Lakewood, N.J. Bobov Chasidim cheered along with Satmars. These groups, while similar, usually stay within their own communities. As speaker after speaker at the rally made clear, the Internet is the latest in a series of threats dating back to the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, which first opened up a path for Jews to leave tradi- tion for the secular world. "Just as they fought tooth and nail against the Haskalah, they're fighting again against this;' said Samuel Heilman, a City University of New York sociology professor who studies haredi communi- ties."They live in a singular world. They've tried to keep all the doorways locked from the inside, but you can only lock some- thing from the inside if the people are willing to keep it locked." Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman, a promi- nent haredi lecturer, made clear at the rally that they view the Internet as a profound challenge to the haredi way of life: "This issue is the test of the genera- tion that threatens all of us. Your strength at this gathering will determine what we look like a few years from now:' Changing Times The Internet has become a necessity for many haredim: They use it to conduct business, communicate with each other and even to promote Jewish observance. "In the sense that they have already used the Internet to spread their mes- sage far beyond the local community, the Internet has been good for them as well',' Heilman said."They're going to use it, going to say that the end justifies the means:' The late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, famously embraced technology as a means of spreading the faith. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which did not officially participate in the rally, was an early adapter to the Internet age and has used online tools effectively. "Everything God created in this world could be used for good or the opposite"' said Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, director of Chabad.org ."It's our responsibility to channel the enormous powers of technol- ogy in a positive manner:' But the Internet's dangers — not just pornography and the window it provides into the secular world, but even its poten- tial for distraction — present the haredi lifestyle with the challenge of how to use it for good while keeping out the bad. Jason Miller, a Detroit-based Conservative rabbi who maintains an active Web presence, said the Internet challenges anyone who cares about ethics. "To some extent, we all need to have the Internet moder- ated for us," Miller said. "Beyond modesty, there's content that I don't think is healthy or Conservative beneficial for individu- Rabbi Miller als to see or read!' A Diverse Take Adrianne Jeffries, a female blogger who snuck into the rally disguised as a man, wrote that although not haredi, she found herself agreeing with some of the speakers' points at the rally. "There wasn't much I could quibble with in the speech," wrote Jeffries, who blogs for BetaBeat, a technology blog asso- ciated with the New York Observer. "The Internet is about instant gratifica- tion? It's 'fleeting and empty'? It causes us to waste productive hours? It threatens the preservation of isolated communities with strong traditions, such as the ultra- Orthodox Jews? Well, yes, but ..." For a community whose survival depends in part on maintaining its isola- tion, the Internet can be pernicious. "Jews should separate themselves from the general community,' Rabbi Yechiel Meir Katz, the Dzibo rebbe, said at the rally. "The great rabbis have done so in order to safeguard future generations." Alan Mittleman, a professor of Jewish thought at the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, said the haredim are winning the battle against the Internet just as they survived the Haskalah. "It's a problem that they've already solved," he said of the Internet. "Its more powerful and invasive, a new kind of threat, but it's the same kind of thing." See related editorial on page 32.