New York – Thousands of people are expected to gather in Queens this spring for an asifa that will offer both words of chizuk and halachic guidance on dealing with the challenges of modern technology.
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The event, which will take place on Sunday, May 20th at Citi Field in Flushing, is being arranged by Ichud Hakehillos L’Tohar Hamachaneh, an organization founded last year by R’ Matisyahu Solomon and the Skulener Rebbe to combat the dangers that are inherent in the contemporary digital world.
As reported in today’s Charedi newspaper Hamodia, Rabbonim from numerous different communities across North America have joined the Ichud in an effort to formulate an appropriate approach that allows the frum community to make use of current technology without compromising any religious standards.
Further details for the asifa will be announced in the upcoming weeks.
How ironic this meeting will take place in a baseball stadium full of technology.
I’m laughing…Of course this asifa needs to be held at citi field…
Its a waste of time. The Rebbes have lost this battle.. Unless they will publicly admit and say the internet is here to stay, lets try to utilize the internet to expend on Torah and Yiryas Hahsem.
If they are gathering to ban sites, or the internet, they will be a laughing stock, and this Asifah will be the last nail in the coffin for people to respect them.
Ein gozrin gezeirah she’ein hatzibbur yecholim la’amod bo.
Will I be abel to watch the Asifah online?
I have an idea- many people are not frum- let’s use the internet to try and get every yid out there and spread yiddishkeit…everyone who uses the internet should do one thing a day do enhance yiddishkeit
The purpose of this meeting is to acknowledge that the original effort to simply prohibit internet access via computers and smart phones has been lost and the army is retreating to a new battle line where they will stress the need for filters and limiting access for younger children. I suspect within a year or two, they will simply surrender entirely.
all the organizers have iPhones………………………….
The main reason that this asifa will be just another formality and piece of drama is that our communinty no longer has the basic requirement of any community – leadership and the capacity to accept direction from leaders. We might wish to blame our leaders for being less than those who preceded them in earlier generations (though they were placed here, not back in time). We would do much more to worry about how we accept leadership. Is it all about asking rabbonim, rebbes, roshei yeshivos about what to name the baby? Perhaps, if we looked to seek guidance in how to be better ovdei Hashem, we might get somewhere. If we choose to complain about our gedolim, we would do well to recognize that they cannot be more than we allow – performers, figureheads, persons fitting for nice photos, etc. What a shame our generation has stooped so low. Torah has so much in it, and we waste it on frivolities.
They cannot stand back and say nothing. The disturbances these devices cause in our shuls and sedorim are out of control. For some it is an addiction. Among some teenagers there is widespread Chillul Shabbos. If our families saw us leave the phone and computer off and at home when we go to shul/beis medrash it would make a roshem. Anyone who thinks they need to be available 24/6 has an exaggerated sense of self-importance. We have a concept of Ta’anis Dibur-how about a Ta’anis Technology?
Stop being so skeptical I assume that they will not just ban the internet blanketly but they will try to educate people on how and why to use proper net filters and what to put in their childrens hands and rooms.
Asifa stands for
Android
Smartphones
Iphone
Facebook
Assur
The only leverage that the Rabbonim have in order to dictate gezeiros regarding new technology (not including state of the art technologically advanced jacuzzies in their private mikva rooms), is through threatening to expel children from school whose parents are not in lockstep.
Shame. They should call an asifa about creating jobs for the yungerleit, and lowering the chasuna standards.
U can watch it live at asifa.org
I wonder will they except funds for their insitutions by way of pay pal or others..
I find it amazing how these so called ( mostly self appointed) leaders focus on every thing except Ahavas yisroel… Do they have cell phones, are their institutions using computers for their bookingkeeping, How about their tax claims, land purchases
How does the gemera say,,”the face of the generations is like the face of a dog””
Most of you commenters are just so off!
I don’t see where it says in this article that the Asifa will ban the Internet. In fact, it will clearly not do so. The Rabbonim are working on enabling people to use technology and the Internet for innocuous and necessary purposes, while saving ourselves and our children from terrible harm.
What exactly is wrong with that?
In the shuls in my neighborhood, the rabbonim can’t even get through a simple Mincha service without sneeking a peek at their Blackberrys. R’L
If we teach our children right from wrong, morals, ethics etc….there should not be a problem using the internet. Do you think that the outside world wants their children looking at porno? We all have to learn that there are things out there not for us. But don’t put up walls, so that when someone breaks through the wall, there is no stopping him.
How about these brilliant (self appointed) leaders (not mine) deal with real issues like child molestors and wife beaters? If I remember correctly, it was not long ago when one these guys stood up at a public forum and said about a know child molesting rebbie – “We have to protect the dignity of the rebbie”. Yeah, the heck with the kids, lets protect the low-lifes getting paid to teach them.
Definitely a waste of time and yiddish gelt!!!!!! Unfortunately its in vain! Its a lost battle.
Once again the Rabanim are focusing on the wrong issues of today. What is destroying our world today is geneivishe shtick,stealing in business,stealing from employees,people borowing without intention of paying back,stealing of all forms.
If you put food in your mouth that came from stolen money we all now what the gemara says.
When will the Rabanim focus on community issues like stealing, kosher food prices through the roof that nobody can afford bread anymore. When will the rabanim talk about affordable housing and tell the real estate people to stop taking advantage of frum ehrliche yidden? And please do not reply that nobody has to live with yidden!
Only where frum epopel live are the prices 250,000 more then the rest of the country. It’s ridiculous whats going on. The internet is the least of the jewish problems today. How about the rabanim also talk about putting pedophiles in jail once and for all. Oh, did i just hit a raw nerve?
Technology is NOT an enemy, you just have to know how to use.
Big waist of time.
I fail to see the point in this. The problems presented by technology will not be solved with Mega Rallies and the Pontification of various speakers. These issues are best dealt with in an individualized way with each community, school or shul dealing with and receiving guidance from their own Rov or Moreh Derech. It is fool hardy to expect to find a common approach that will span the entire Orthodox community.
I disagree with those that minimize the problems presented by technology. Yet, I will not contribute my voice to those who blame every ill of the community on it. Rather, I feel there is something seriously wrong at the core, and in our effort to cope with that, many of us gravitate to the lures of today’s nisyonos, one major one being technology.
Where is the core yir’as Hashem with which each of us should be imbued? Why are we busy creating yeshivos for mitzuyanim, as if the only goal is the accumulated knowledge of Torah – when there are countless neshamos circulating in our streets who want to learn but “can’t make the grade”? Every grocery offers for sale items that are definitely NOT needs but luxuries, but these are now staples in every home. We parents must provide chachkes and extras for our children “because others have them”. Have we blocked out avodas Hashem, replacing it with heaps of gashmiyus? We live in a photo society, now that technology places a camera on every phone. Whatever “looks good” must be good. Check the newspapers for pictures of gedolim. Is their appearance all we need? Being empty of HKB”H, fill up on technology.
Life is great. Hashem is True. And if you want to know who is in control, it is G-d. And what does this mean? He is LETTING AND ENDORSING the creation of all of the technology.
This says that if you think that you are to live in a Tech free world with no television set and no computer and no cell phone and all the like, you really have no trust in your G-d to bring you to an era of good experiences and good holiness.
G-d is not going to let this planet he created be destroyed by the future.
Is it in the season ticket package? Can’t wait to watch these gedolim throw curve balls of eminah and bitachon, here or there a Home Run of chizuk, or a strike out throw ’em out DP on smart phones…problem is they’ll lose 1/0 in the bottom of the 14th on a HR by google’s newest ‘Droid…
who is paying for this citifield fiasco. the millions could be better spent to help yidden find jobs and provide food for the poor. smoking and drinking is more dangerous then the internet why no asifa for that? guess who is teaching our kids to smoke and drink, just wondering.
How unfortunate! Why could this not be done in a less public venue? How will I face my colleagues
work? What will I tell them when they point to the technical futility of such an endeavor (or the mockery of our isolationist ‘technology war’)?
Why did none of the organizer reach out to me? I mean this seriously – rabanim know me when they need technical advice for their causes – why is my advice not sought on technology advancement?
Ubiquity is the lay of the land -and this probably means that neither filters nor buddy systems will be easily implemented even for those who want it. False protection is not much protection at all. “war” on technology is an even sillier notion and will only embarrass all those of us who have to face the outside word on a daily basis.
I guess I’ll just bury my head in the sand and when asked by colleagues -I’ll somehow have to mumble something about fanatics leading the rabbonim who then attempt lead the blind……
Don’t get me wrong – there are issues to tackle but an ASIFA is a publicity stunt that will only serve to embarrass folks like me and shock the the lemelech in kollel.
Reality check for Rabonim:
Teenage boy has a mother or father that don’t dress according to the frumest standards not necessarily against any halacha or are not considered prestigious or rich, boy gets expelled from or not accepted to school when its not his fault, father tries to reason with school but school wont give in because it can chas vechalom affect the image of the school thus affecting the “kavod” of the rosh yeshiva. Father tries with the board which are usually a group of rich selfish megushemdick know nothing about chinuch with a frum exterior coating balei batim that really don’t care about the future of klal ysroel. Father runs to local rabbonim and gets nowhere. Boy and father are left broken hearted betrayed by everyone they were told all their lives to respect and will be there for them , boy is on the streets now or in a school where he cant possibly grow, boy makes bad friends, boy comes across bad content on the internet. Where should he get the strength or desire to fight after experiencing how the menahalim, rosh yeshivas and rabbonim the “elites” among klal ysroel behave like?
Its not all, but far to many.
Internet is step 3 not 1.
When we make huge asifos we show Hitler that he lost the war and we won. That is why the religion of the holocaust makes sure to make as many public asifos as possible.
Seriously speaking, what happenned to hatzpinu atzmechem? Why can’t we keep a low profile and teach, on a private level, our talmidim and baalebatim how to fight the yetzer hora for lashon hora, pornography, apostasy and all the other evil on the internet? When are we going to learn that small is beautiful?
Commenter #40 makes an important point, and this well deserves a separate forum to discuss. For virtually any ill, a knee jerk reaction is to expel the children from yeshiva/school. If a parent is observed to be doing anything that is displeasing to the yeshiva, the child is thrown out into the street. While I refuse to have internet access on my phone, Should I choose to have it, my children would be unwelcome in yeshiva, even expelled if already there. Why? I don’t know. The child has zero responsibility, yet we are frequently witness to precious children being used as the spanking. Someone here has a huge responsibility for setting up this child at risk, yet the blame will be pointed everywhere but not at the offending person who rejects innocent children.
I am presently privy to a community where there is a parent involved in seriously sinful behavior. One of the community leaders is seeking to expel the children from their respective yeshivos and schools. I am appalled. This situation is not an exception – it is a rule. Don’t we have anyone who can protest this, or is it up to grass roots efforts to choke off donations to any yeshiva trying this?
Will this be for men and women?
Not that I exactly see a point in this (I do agree though that we need filters on the internet) but if only half of the household (men) are invited then there’s no point. Both parents need to be involved in this as they are both involved in the chinuch of their children.
Who will be live-blogging it?