By Adrianne Jeffries 6/05/12 4:11pm

Jews Against the Internet

Internet asifa, take two.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews Are Having Another Mass Meeting About the Internet, This Time With Women

Not everyone in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community was pleased with how that recent rally against the Internet at Citifield turned out. The event was only for men, and its conclusion was that the Internet should only be used in the course of work and when necessary to earn a living–even though the event itself was livestreamed. Mixed messages!

Certain contingents were fired up after the event. Following the rally, one rabbi in upstate New York told his congregation to get rid of their cellphones within a month or find themselves a new rabbi. But some Jewish men and women found this position to be extreme, and so a second rally has been scheduled for the local ultra-Orthodox community in Flatbush. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 5/30/12 6:13pm

Jews Against the Internet

Kiryas Joel. (Photo: Daniel Case via Wikipedia)

Either the Smartphone Goes or I Go, Rabbi Tells Followers

It’s come to this: your iPhone or your rabbi. At least one New York rabbi has laid down an ultimatum after rabbis at a massive rally of ultra-Orthodox Jews banned the Internet. The Yeshiva World is reporting that a rabbi in Kiryas Joel, a Jewish town of 5,000 21,000 in Orange County, has told his followers that they must throw out their smartphones within a month or find a new rabbi. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 5/24/12 12:21pm

Information Wants to Be Free

asifa rabbi

More Evidence That You Just Can’t Keep a 40K-Person Rally in New York City Private [VIDEO]

The organizers of the massive ultra-Orthodox Jewish rally against the Internet last weekend were hoping to keep the event insular. But unfortunately for them, leaks are all over the same Internet they were rallying against—and we’re not talking about ourselves and others from the curious secular press.

At least a dozen attendees were tweeting live from the event, and many others blogged and posted on Facebook and in Jewish forums about it the next day. The entire 100-page “brochure” about Internet usage was posted online. It seems there will be no more secrets, except perhaps for what the rabbis were whispering to each other: Video of the full event, apparently grabbed from the Livestream that was supposed to broadcast the event to Haredi women who weren’t allowed into the stadium, is hosted in at least two places. Like it or not, the frum are, it seems, quite web-savvy.

By Adrianne Jeffries 5/21/12 10:51am

Moral Minority

12 Photos

The Internet asifa at Citi Field.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews Take a Hard Line on the Internet at Rally of 40,000 Men (And Me)

On Sunday, 40,000 mostly Hasidic Jewish men in black hats and black suits gathered at Citi Field for a series of speeches concerning the corrupting influence of the Internet. The talks were broadcast to the JumboTron, betwixt the oversized bottles of Cholula censored with a white cloth over the label, which shows a woman.

The 7 train from Grand Central had become packed with men in black, all in a fine mood, before we poured out at the Mets-Willets Point train station like kids on a field trip. Now there were all kinds of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in the stadium: fat, skinny, young, old, short, tall, with glasses, without beards, wearing watches, smoking cigarettes, talking on cellphones. “Hats off! Hats off!” the ticket-takers barked as the throng of yidden crowded around the entrance to left field. Jewish Reporter, one of the few media outlets approved by the organizers, said on Twitter that it was one of the biggest crowds the stadium had ever seen.

Yes, the stadium was full of men, and the women’s bathrooms were reportedly locked. Yet there were at least three females present: a ticket-taker, an usher, and me, in a pair of $15 Payless loafers, my brother’s dress clothes, and a donated kippah. Oh, and the white duct tape around my chest, G.I. Jane style.

I tested my disguise at Duane Reade and the 6 train and was relieved to see I wasn’t getting any longer-than-usual stares; but it wasn’t until the first Hasid asked me for directions that I breathed a sigh of relief. Or would have, if the duct tape weren’t so tight. Read More