New York – The first great asifa to warn about the ills of the Internet will take place on May 20th at Citifield Stadium, home to the New York Mets!
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There have been several smaller local gatherings but this is the first “great” gathering. If this one works, and I doubt that it will, be prepared we will start seeing them pop up across Israel, the U.S. and the world:
Revivalist meetings coming to a stadium near you! The Internet is the Satan!
It cost in the vicinity of $1.5 million to rent Citifield stadium but no sum of money will be spared to gather the people to hear from leading Rabbis about the ills of the Internet. It seems that women are not invited but no amount of pressure will be overlooked in getting fathers and their sons to attend this gathering. School buses will ferry them from their schools and homes to the stadium to hear the speeches vilifying the newest Satan incarnate- – the Internet. For some schools attendance at this event is mandatory. Yes tickets are being sold, at the cost of $10 per person. The day is designed to “be a gathering of unity of all the Jews living in the U.S., a gathering to disseminate information and a prayer rally for the success of Klal-Israel’s war on the Technology which threatens the sanctity of the homes of Israel.”
” War on the technology” sounds like a public relations phrase. More likely this is a war on pornography that is rampant and easily available on the internet. To say that it is a war on technology does not sound as legitimate as saying it is a war on porn but the hesitancy to mention that is understandable within this community. Why not state, however, that the ban on the internet has actually been in existence for some communities since 2006 when it was decreed that only individuals who needed the internet for work and received special dispensation from their rabbis can have access to the internet? Why too is the issue presented in terms of “the technology” – is this an attack on all technology? I think it is!
As of this writing, ticket sales for the asifa are extremely sluggish and that is understandable. Who wants to spend a free afternoon, one of the very few available in the spring season, away from the family to hear about something that is viewed by the “klal” as perhaps not foolish but at the very least outdated and not very meaningful, and to spend money on it to boot? Many communities have Wi-Fi, and if they do not have it now they will in a few years. Most homes have computers and most parents know that their children need to be supervised when they are on the computer. The vast majority of parents know that technology is forever moving and it is important to keep up.
What is most interesting to me is that I have learned in Beit Midrash with some of the mid-level rabbonim who have lent their support to this event. They may not remember me but I remember them as they were in their late teens and early twenties. They read newspapers, played ball even bummed a cigarette on occasion. Now they have become part of the ever expanding creep of things that are Assur, prohibited. For many of them newspapers are now Assur. Even Hamodia may be Assur to some of them.
What is causing this vast sea change that has made the world so frightening a place that our religious leaders are so insistent that the only way to deal with life is to withdraw from it? Many of these leaders were not raised in this manner. They were taught what was good and what was not. They were shown how to navigate through the potholes of decadence that every now and then pop up in our paths. They were never taught to run and hide but to engage properly in society. I have it on good authority from some insiders that this new restrictive approach to the world is based purely on financial considerations. By having a following that will make no decisions on their own, the ruler sets the tone for the economy of the group and his own greed is nourished. But that is pure cult thinking and I reject that as the primary motivation. I believe that many of these religious leaders honestly, but mistakenly, think that they have the best interest of their followers at heart.
The real reason for these increasingly authoritarian and repressive restrictions is, I think, due to a lack of a broad, worldly education. The older generations valued education of all sorts. The Rabbis of the Gemara all had jobs in addition to their scholarly disputation work. While Torah related subjects were always more highly valued mathematics, chemistry, philosophy and biology, even vocational and trade pursuits were no less part of the holy components of an education then were Gemara. In the last generation these pursuits have not just been marginalized they are increasingly rejected. Students coming out of many of the high schools that the asifa is targeted toward can barely string together a coherent and grammatically correct sentence. Many of their parents are frustrated by the limited education their children receive but feel trapped because there are fewer options for them to choose from. Only the more modern leaning yeshivas still educate all secular subjects. Even in those schools though the emphasis is more and more on getting into the best Beit Midrash or seminary program, even before thinking about whether or not college is an option. When you are not educated about a subject you are easily alarmed by it. The internet is not the problem. The lack of education about the world is.
Dr. Michael Salamon, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, is the founder and director of ADC Psychological Services in New York. He is the author of numerous articles, several psychological tests and books including “The Shidduch Crisis: Causes and Cures” (Urim Publications) and “Every Pot Has a Cover” (University Press of America). His newest book is called “Abuse in the Jewish Community: Religious and Communal Factors that Undermine the Apprehension of Offenders and the Treatment of Victims.”.
Even though not well written, he however brought out very interesting points.
Well said. While I will not attend the asifa, I don’t know that the entire idea of the event is to completely reject the internet; perhaps they will just give people ideas to help safeguard their family from harm. But it’s a waste of time
your not alone, i feel the same way…i feel this asifa will have the opposite effect on the klal…i received a note from our children school that attendance is mandatory. i will not be attending, as i feel its a waste of time. and they missed the point…in my view rabbonim should be preaching middos tovos ahvas yisroel, ban on loshon horah….torah ect….this banning business is backwards….primitive.
I won’t comment about the Internet asifa per say ,but what is needed much more is an asifa about middos tovos. Whether its a husband holding back a get, a mechutin demanding more and more, a son in law who won’t work because it past nisht, schools not accepting kids because they don’t exactly fit in, or thrown out because he is not 100% as good as the others. Stealing, ponzu schemes etc.
So if you already have an asifa, I sure hope this is included.
Teach them all at the asifa how the eibishter likes us all regardless teach them ahavas hashem and most of these problems will be no more. And to the author Hashem loves you too. He loves us all. Even if u and I didn’t make it to rebistashaff!!
While in essence I do agree with the author, I am not so quick to dismiss the convictions and teachings of our Rabbanim. Our world is constantly changing, and it has become increasingly difficult to protect the sanctity of our chldren.There must be some way to incorporate this necessary technology in our lives while keeping our children safe. I wish I knew how.
The kids brought home a letter from school and if read..
We ask u to buy a ticket to the event. If u bought already, let us know in writing where you bought it.
This is abuse and control.
Heres an easy way to get to the stadium from Lakewood.
take the turnpike to 15x.seacaucus.
park in the lot.(20.00)
take train to penn station (7min)
take train to citifield ( 16 min)
Doctor-
Surely a professional of your stature knows better than to attack an event that hasn’t yet happened and mock an agenda which hasn’t yet been expressed.
Have you ever met Rav Mattisyau Salomon, who does what you and your fellow psychologists do, but for free- all day, all night, because he cares about others. Perhaps you should make it a point to meet him and then ascend the soapbox.
This is a petty piece and I expected better from you.
For all those who want an Asifa to promote Ahavas Yisroel, Anti Lasho Harah etc- PUT ONE TOGETHER-
This Asifa is about protecting ourselves and our families from the dangers of the internet and how we can combat it-
All those who say they don’t feel they have to go, should take a long hard look in the mirror-
besides for all these points mentioned there is a distinct lack of information on this asifa. Who is speaking? what are they speaking about? whats on the program? why is the technology expo twice as long as the rest of the asifa? why are the rabonim backing this not staying anonymous? why are women not invited? if its logistically too hard to set up an ezras noshim for 40,000 how is the agudah doing it for the 70,000 at the siyum hashas? why does it look like a knockoff of the siyum hashas? why in the imterview published in the ami magazine every question asked got a political answer sidestepping the actual question? why is the horror story printed in the ichud hainternet pamphlet about the dangers of the internet about the highly implausible and unlikely issue of a bais yaakov girl almost converting to christianity? (not that that never happened but that thats not the norm nor the point of the asifa)
It really makes no sense and a lot of the gedolim I am told agree that women are not going. We are the ones who run the homes for the most part. If choice comes down to tv or no tv, normally the woman is the one who is the decider. Yes you can disagree and talk about man being the king but let us be realistic, who normally sits and does the homework, who is the one who raises our children.
Yet we cannot attend, it is sad that the asifa is not for women. Somehow the siyum Shas can be for women but not this.
Dr. Salomon, excellent article. I do think that those involved here have privately given up on trying to ban “the internet”, which is about as nonsensical as banning air. My guess is that there will be much semantic posturing and face-saving language to salvage whatever shreds of credibility those who are behind this have left.
While I agree pornography is dangerous for young children, and parents should do what they can to shield their children from it, how best to do that is a private, individual parenting decision. There’s no need for the excess of an “asifa”, nor is there need for the excessive hyperbole whenever “the internet” is spoken about. Hyperbole combined with top-down, stern demands on parents are sure-fire ways to ensure that your message, whether justified or not, is tuned out.
I would also add that this gathering hasn’t happened yet, so I certainly can’t pass judgement on it yet. But from the marketing and “campaign” materials, I would conjecture that while bans are now viewed as inappropriate, there still exists the tendency to distill “the internet” down to a concrete “thing” that is “good, but mostly bad”. This type of thinking, while somewhat appropriate 15 years ago, is anachronistic in the extreme and serves quite well in alienating so-called leadership from its base and renders ineffective any message it tries to convey. Internet connectivity, in all its shapes and forms, can indeed pose as a spiritual – and physical! – threat to children and adults. But discussion about its use – and I mean the word discussion – needs to be nuanced, balanced, and open in light of how inter-connectivity has rapidly changed and advanced and continues to do so.
Last point – again, judging from the pre-asifa literature, it seems to me that the issue is not limited to pornography. Leaders, like any other group in power, are becoming increasingly terrified of their flock’s ability to connect with the “outside” world, read others’ freely broadcast opinions, encounter alternate lifestyles that do not conform to their rigid parameters, and broadcast their own long-buried thoughts for all to see, read, and disseminate. Leadership is beginning to realize they cannot have the same grip on power over their flock that they did in previous generations, and this scares them.
Much of the fear of the internet is that it also exposes some of the less desirable aspects of our community that have been suppressed including the flouting of laws and sinas achim.
I weigh in as someone who will not ban the asifa. Who am I, in stark contrast to the great tzaddikim and gedolim who decided it is needed? Yet, I struggle to understand what useful to’eles will come from this massive event. A psak can be issued in many ways that are not just far lass costly, but reach the targeted audience. This event, regardless of what is proclaimed, is likely to yield messages that will be bannered in the secular media that orthodox Jews have a problem of schmutz on the internet. They will predictably not address the efforts at maintaining and promoting kedusha. The achdus of kehillos of Klal Yisroel that was anticipated is already in jeopardy, as several kehillos have already failed to sign on as participants or endorsements, and others have banned their members from attending. I plan to attend anyway, if for no better reason that to follow the directions of gedolei Yisroel, even if I disagree or cannot understand.
It’s amazing that someone with such a prestigious title can be such a fool. This is an issue which threatens the spritual Jewish future and that of our children. Take your head out of the sand and face reality. Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe the Rabbis are just a bit smarter than you are and sometimes they know better than you? At the very least they are attempting to face this challenege and look for some possible solutions and to pray in unison for G-d’s help in protecting us and our children. I hope you don’t find broken marriages, assimilated children or worse problems cause by the internet in your family, and learn the hard way that they (Rabbis) were right. If you don’t want to attend, that’s your (foolish) decision, but how dare you mock an event orchestrated by the greatest men in our generation?! Shame on you! May you see the light soon and retract your useless and pathetic article, and apologize to the Rabbis you scorn.
Not impressed.
Guys, the momentum is here, make sure you are on the right side of history when May 20th 2012 comes around.
The sentiment above is like a young child that only sees black or white, nothing in between. The internet has created a lot of gray area, nothing is fixed overnight. Don’t cover naivete with “open mindedness”!
Well nothing personal against this OP Ed but most of my friends and thousands of other yiden are going (I heard they sold over 20,000 tickets kein yirbu) for us the fact that most rosh yeshivas and rebbes signed is good enough!!.
Even just to say shema together is worth the whole event.
I’m trying to organize an asifah against geneivah. I need to raise $1M dollars, but I’m having trouble, becuase I won’t accept any funds that were obtained illegally.
Finally someone articulated the truth. Technology is a euphemism for Pornography and S – X. The whole Asifa is about how to deal with it. It is not just the pornography but the use of social media to hook up in illicit sexual relationships and so on. And yes it is going on in the frum community but truth be told it went on before the internet as well – did someone say the word bungalow colony. Dr. Salamon hit the nail on the head in so many points he made. Comparing the Asifa to a revivalist meeting is so sadly funny and on the mark that I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe they should invite one of the christian televangalists to speak. Oh you can put that in too, the laitzanus and Lashon Hara of the Internet. Kudos Dr Salamon – a stingingly honest and accurate essay.
Although I also think that this asifa will accomplish nothing, and don’t even see the point of this whole thing, however there is such a thing as kvod hatorah and when lots of big roshei yeshivas and rabunim come together and sign off on this, I think its a big chutzpah from anyone to stand up and say otherwise, u can say other points that ‘you’ think are more important, but to mock something that so many rabunim are doing that is really a terrible thing to do!!!!
Besides, Do u really think that if internet would have been available 2000 years ago that there wouldn’t be written in halacha how and where u can or can’t go or do????!!!!!!!
I’m not in NY, if they’ll stream it, I could watch here. Anyone live-blogging the event?
Anyone who thinks this asifah is silly need only speak to any frum marriage counselor or rabbi and find out just how many marriages are being broken up due to the internet (porn, Facebook,etc).
i am curious how the program is intended to work and what they anticipate will result from the asifa, but what the author isn’t considering is that rabbonim & community leaders of all types and levels, from roshei yeshivos, large congregations, small shteibleich, chassidishe and litvak, are all having people coming to them in a terrible place regarding their marriage, children, neighbors, etc in terms of ruchnius, gashmius, yahadus, etc, and it can clearly be traced back to the internet. it’s not just a matter of pornography. kids are getting exposed to ideas that no one, jewish or non-jewish, would approve of, and it’s not like they are going outdoors where we can see and prevent it- they are doing so hidden away and it may not be noticed until it’s too late. and it’s not just kids. it’s happening via the internet on home computers, ipods, telephones, and apparently even cameras have a browser nowadays. relationships are falling apart btwn husband and wife, parents and children, and friend to friend, because a major distraction has come btwn them and they don’t know how to balance it. maybe it’s come upon us because we thought we were insular enough & wouldn’t succumb
Will someone explain why we are in need of an asifa that may very well be futile if not backfire (when you obligate people to buy tickets against their will). There is going to be a siyum Hashas in a few months where tens of thousands will attend willingly why not have a respectable Rosh Hayeshiva address this issue in a acceptable way to a crowd that will be willing to listen????
The motivation behind the asifa is money and profit. No idiot today believes they can live without some form of internet access. And if there was a rav out there in existence that truly cared about the problems created by inappropriate internet usage, they would invest in EDUCATION IN THE CLASSROOM, not burn money on a public spectacle. But education in the classroom takes effort, organization, and time, not laziness and moronic taliban-like diatribes.
The net result of this assifa: The goyim have another chance to look at chareidim and shake their heads with a mix of disgust and pity.
Dear Friends — In recent weeks I have expressed my skepticism about the upcoming “Internet Asifa” at Citi Field. I have questioned the very purpose and need for the Asifa, and have stated that the Rabbanim could have chosen to address many other pressing needs and serious concerns of our Kehilos – shalom bayis, chinuch habanim, shidduchim, tuition, housing, abuse, etc. etc.
However, I was mistaken. I erred in my judgment. Why? Because I have come to the conclusion that the primary goal of the Asifa is to strengthen Kedushas Am Yisroel — and the Kedusha of Am Yisroel is the Yesod of all Yesodos and the foundation of all foundations upon which all of Yiddishkeit rests.
– See you at the Asifa.
(continued) but we have succumbed, and in a big way. many of us are not as tech savvy as we think or understand of our kids, our spouses, our ability to read the situation, as we think we are. we come to rabbonim once it’s too late. it also has nothing to do w/ rabbonim not being psychiatrists- they are referring plenty of folks to them, but by then it’s later than it needs to be and may be too late to repair. i imagine the asifa will look to educate people to accept the fact that even though kulanu chachamim, kulanu nevoinim, we still have to realize we likely don’t see what the rabbonim and shrinks see since families obviously try to hide the problems, and therefore don’t understand how big this problem is and what’s going on out there. no offense, but looking at these postings, i think many still don’t get how they or others around them are or can be affected. also, it’s probably not just porn, it will discuss several elements of technology including texting and social networks. maybe the best thing it can accomplish is have a major tehillim rally, but at this point, something has to be done and this is their best try to get some traction. b’hatlacha rabba for trying.
Well, you are wrong when you claim that the aversion to secular knowledge is a recent phenomena. In Europe, it was taboo to speak or even know any language other than Yiddish. No Rav would ever dare give a drasha in the vernacular. When Rav Meir Shaprio proposed to start what he called Cheder “B” which would give vocational education in addition to Limudei Kodesh, it was rejected and the pan never got off the ground. Girls were illiterate. The present leadership is focused on the pre war European model and believes it must be emulated here. It’s not for me to say what is right or wrong. I am just saying what is.
I bought a ticket & can’t wait ti go!!
Can you give us chapter and verse? You claim that this is a new phenomena in Judaism. Did the Mihelowitz assifa not take place in 1866? Have you read the Takonos that were signed then?
Are you suggesting that people stumble into porn, lashon hora, kefira and timewasting news and blogs because of a lack of awareness as to the severity of these issues, that you suggest education is the answer? Your thought processes elude me.
However, I personally think this assifa is disconnected from reality, and I do not attach too many hopes for it. Not regarding the internet and certainly not regarding ‘Achdus”.
Ha!! This is coming from a psychiatrist???? Many of them pray on the sick, do nothing for them and take half of their income. You guys think you know everything because of the paper hanging on the wall. Now I will turn the tables around and I will give my observation on you. You sound angry, you sound like you have some issue with people that are different from you (be it more frum or whatever) So the way you deal with it is you put them down make fun of the Gidolim to make yourself feel better. While I have no interest in this “asifa” let the rabonim do what they have to without your silly input.
It’s mystifying to me that so many assume that the Rabbonim and Roshei Yeshiva whose names appeared on the Kol Korei actually signed it. I make it a practice to always ask those that I am close with, whether they did, in fact, sign or not
I asked only one very prominent Rosh Yeshiva this time. He confirmed my suspicion, that he did NOT sign. (Why don’t I share his name with you? Because I am close with him, he is elderly, and he doesn’t deserve the grief that some of the nudnicks will give him.)
So don’t blame the signatories until you can confirm their acquiescense.
As to the essence of the issues raised, I can only quote what has been said in the name of Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld, zt”l, “If the only way we can sell our children on Torah is by forbidding everything else, then we are bankrupt.” Rabbi Freifeld would not have approved of the Internet’s inappropriate usage. That is a given. But that doesn’t change the fact that we are bankrupt.
What a shame that we take a secular newspaper to tell us what values and morals we need, the fact is, this asifa is not only endorsed but actively put together by the most and by the biggest rabbanim of our times, the sklener rebba shlita, and reb matisyuhi soloman, both old And sick people, are personally involved in this meeting, Who’s bracha’s do we seek when we have a medical problem, but when it comes to internet, we are smarter, we know better what works what does not..
Those rabanim are involved in all the gittin and other major problems the internet represents, and if they want to gather Klal yisroel to a meeting about it, who has the chutzpa to say his apinion, they can’t fix the world, and they are well aware that the internet is here to stay, their just trying to make an awareness campaign so every head of household (not the wife) should be aware of the problems and know that there are selutions.
Yes people don’t know,for example I wanna know how many people here know that there is available top notch filters for blackberry browsers????!!!!!
To go and say in advance , that no good will come out of it, is utterly disgusting, and is an agenda pushed by poeple who are very liberal in yiddishkeitt and would love to see yiddishkeit overall come Down to their standard!!
Everybody talks about porn being bad for children, that’s a very small part of the problem, because every parent even a goy knows that, the real issue is us adults, the gemara says; ein apiropus l’aroiyas, no one, and that’s really no one is immune to the dangers of the internet, no matter how much torah you learned in your life , so its the chatrooms and the craigslists that are the real danger And have broken countless homes, and hundreds of family’s are forever destroyed.
So when rabbanim come and say: let’s make a meeting a abou this, why do people feel the need to judge it before it even happened??? I don’t get it?? Those same people would tell other people not to judge their yidishkeit and they are the biggest judges
Will it be broadcast on the web?
Another oiberchuchem coming to throw in his 2 cents without offering anything constructive.
This gathering is not to declare war and ban technology, but rather to promote awareness and provide guidance in how to utilize it properly…
I have heard there are certain kehillos that are not supporting the Asifa because they feel they can’t be part of a gathering that includes Yidden with different standards of Yiddishkeit than their own. What a pity. This is pure sinas chinam — the very opposite message of Rebbe Akiva and the Yemei Sefira. Furthermore, this attitude is very naive. There is NO kehillah that is immune from the spiritual destruction and ravages of the internet today. If they only knew what goes on behind closed doors in their own kehillos….
This writer is in my view is just another individual who has a hard time sticking to “v’lo sosuru acharei eineichem”. He also does not want any guilt feelings when he succumbs to his yetzer horah. As such he feels the need to slam those of us who want to show hashem that we’re trying to do our best. He also does so in public because, “Misery likes company”
There have been others like him in every generation. This is nothing new.
Not going. I’ll just watch the live-blogging and listen to the podcast
You think they’ll let me in if I’m a Chabanik?
I would like to organize an honesty in business asifa. I am looking for the smallest shteeble in the Tri-State area, there will be no cover charge, and I will give free food. You think I will fill up the house????? Doubtful!!! Its not stylish to profess honesty………sad, but true!
I agree with the need for appropriate access to the internet, but I have a question. Do you think somebody is harmed more by the viewing of an inappropriate image or being molested by somebody they trust? Do you think a child is harmed more by the viewing of an inappropriate image or being shunned by a yeshiva that feels that they don’t measure up? Why don’t we have an asifa decrying these abominations? Is it because these issues might point back at the feebleness of our leadership? I know the answer and so do you.
Ok, I have a great idea. All those that feel a need to go, GO. All those who don’t feel a need, DON’T GO. Let’s all live and let live, and let’s not judge. Step 1 in Ahavas Yisroel. How’s that?
Instead of spending $1,5 million to rent a stadium, why did they not donate that money to needy families for different holidays? Some yiden with very large families struggle to put a yom tov on the table. Take this million and put it into an interest bearing fund — some have higher rates, depending on the amount you put in, and give– It does not have to be a lot!! You can make the same speech in a large auditorium for less money!!
When Moshe Rabainu said “Me L’Hasham Ailie” – Dr. Solomon you would of said why are you telling us what to do, you just got here, you were away for 40 days. alot of things happened since then.
Dr. solomon you might of played ball, read newspapers with todays Rabonim but you were not in Beit Midrash with them where they developed what Klal Yisroel needs and how to achive it.
Just to give you a hint of how things work here – our Robonim have more Seyata D’Shmaya then the rest of us, because their Seyata D’Shmaya is our Seyata D’Shmaya. So when they say, the men (only) from Klal Yisroel should get together and work on a solution of the exising issue and be mispallel together as one then that is what we need to do. KAPISH
Women can attend the Siyum HaShas but not this internet Asifah!!!????
Someone PLEASE explain