JERUSALEM (RNS) – Shmuli looks terrified through the windows of his cell phone shop. It pulls the long beard and side curls. “Please don’t take a picture of me,” he pleads. Don’t speak out loud. “
His tone is threatening. “Go. Go away. To this. “
Shmuli (not his real name) has an explanation for why he is afraid. Several promotional smartphones and other virtual technologies near Mea She’arim, Jerusalem’s largest ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, were looted. Customers were assaulted and riots broke out in nearby streets.
Smartphones have had a volatile challenge in the Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, network since April, when Israel’s communications minister facilitated smartphone use through Haredi without the wisdom of his rabbis, expanding tensions within the Haredi network and between them and others. Israeli society.
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Haredi Jews make up 12. 6% of Israel’s population, or 16% of Israeli Jews, and are one of the fastest developing communities in the country. And the term really refers to various sects and diverse denominations, all haredim are united in their adherence to the law in all facets of their lives and their general rejection of Western sensibilities. Rabbis learned in law make decisions about everything from modesty needs for women to private fitness for marital relationships.
Haredim see themselves as defenders of original Judaism and, at most, live in very similar communities, a way of life that some call a “ghetto by choice. “The studies and forget to the maximum of basic subjects such as English, science or mathematics, leaving their graduates with few characteristics in the market of tasks. Encouraged to continue their devoted studies, few Haredi men are salaried; those who have a tendency to paint in the community.
Having created haredi newspapers and magazines, its rabbis forbid community department stores from selling secular newspapers. When television came to Israel in 1965, the rabbis banned the “briefcase” in the homes of adherents. Today, knowledge shows that less than a portion of Haredi families own a television.
But virtual communications, a greater risk to cultural walls, are more fearsome for rabbis. Virtual teams not only offer access to irrelevant content, but pave the way for newsgroups and apps like WhatsApp, where haredi can criticize rabbis and even draw on the secular resources of authority.
Rabbinic bans on computers and the Internet have been less successful than banning television or the secular press. Initially, the rabbis banned the Internet altogether, but as the need for it was greatest in life and livelihoods, they allowed a filtered Internet for non-publics. Computers.
But the rabbis drew the line with smartphones. They organized the Rabbinical Committee for Communications, which, together with Israel’s top 3 mobile phone providers, created the “kosher” phone, a simplified phone that blocks messaging, video, radio, and the Internet.
The committee and cell phone providers also created a set of compromised numbers with their own domain code, making it transparent if a call comes from an unsupervised device.
The committee blocked sexual telephone services, but also government welfare agencies, centers for sexual and domestic violence (which rabbis prefer to run within the community), and secular organizations that help others seeking to leave the community.
When a 2007 amendment to the telecommunications law required Israeli cellular teletelephony providers to allow their consumers to switch between corporations while maintaining the same non-public teletelephony number, other agreements exempted kosher teletelephony numbers.
The rabbis have discovered other tactics to aid their prohibitions. Posters on the walls of haredi neighborhoods warn of the great non-secular value that comes with a non-kosher telephone. Haredi media may not promote products or facilities that direct consumers to a secular teletelephone. numbers, and parents without an approved phone number cannot enroll their children in school. A man who uses an outdoor telephone cannot be counted as a minyan, one of the 10 men needed for public worship. Children from families that use smart phones have shied away from a shidduch (arranged marriage).
Officially, the crusade worked and most haredim use kosher phones, although express knowledge is not available. But others have moved away from social tension by just having two phones, one to use within the community and one for everything else.
Dovid, 58, a haredi man with status close to the Shmuli store who refused to give his full name, said: “I am a real estate agent in the Haredi community. Of course, I practice and adore my rabbis, but I can’t serve. “like in my paintings without a smartphone. It’s like that in the fashion world, unfortunately.
Women complained about being at a disadvantage with hotlines for domestic and sexual violence. “I’m a Haredi woman,” said Shlomit, 38, a mother of eight. shame. ” I know rabbis don’t need to admit that there are disorders like violence in our community, but there are. I settle for the decisions of the rabbis in peak cases, but I know that many women cling to two phones.
Esty Shushan, social activist and haredi entrepreneur, and founder and executive director of Nivcharot, a haredi feminist organization, that emergency numbers deserve not to be blocked, but opposes the widespread use of smartphones. “I use a smartphone,” he said. I wish I didn’t have to. This is another way the generation is taking control of our lives and stealing time and attention, not just for the haredim, but for everyone. There is something very beautiful and meaningful that our network seeks to live. an easier and more meaningful life, committed to values and beliefs.
Israel’s recent top governing coalition, which will likely remain in place until the fall elections, came with haredi parties and ended the Orthodox monopoly on various religious issues. numbers to suppliers without restrictions. The reform will enter into force on July 31.
“Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel is seeking to damage the way of life of the ultra-Orthodox public,” Haredi leader United Torah Judaism charged.
Others have gone further. ” Shmad,” exclaimed one rabbi, an emotionally charged word referring to decrees by foreign leaders to force Jews to abandon their religion.
“It’s worse than the Holocaust,” shouted another.
The rabbis alleged that the youths were corrupted through pornography and other ungodly content.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Hendel said his resolution was about “Israel’s character as a Jewish and democratic state. We will have to agree that there is no autonomy. Kosher phones are a kind of monopoly, outside the law. “and order. I can’t accept. . . that there is a monopoly of Judaism that belongs only to the Haredi community.
Shlomo Fischer, who teaches sociology at Hebrew and Ben-Gurion universities and is the founding executive director of Yesodot, a think tank that promotes education for democracy, said the Haredi protest had nothing to do with content. power. Rabbis are afraid of wasting their authority,” he said.
With greater communication with the global “outside” and greater virtual skills, haredim will also accept better jobs and be less dependent on the community, Fisher added.
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The rabbis’ authority has shrunk since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fisher said, when they opposed social distancing and insisted that schools remain open. The Haredi network has suffered some of the rates in Israel due to COVID-19 mortality. .
In reaction to the development of disobedience, self-proclaimed vigilantes have to enforce the smartphone ban through violence. Moishe, who happens to be in her twenties, was hiding near Shmuli’s shop. “Out of our neighborhood,” he yelled at a reporter. You can let us know. The police can arrest us. But we will not allow those impure abominations to destroy our holy lives.
Yedidia Stern, president of the Jewish People’s Policy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank, the cellphone controversy is a war in Israel’s culture war. “The Haredim would like to see Israel as a devout state, but this contradicts the views of secularists, clerics and Arabs,” Stern said. “This is the context of the crusade against cell phones. This will not be resolved in the near future. “