"A project was recently launched by hard-line sectors of the haredi community in Beit Shemesh to discourage the use of the Internet and the devices that enable easy access to it. The idea behind the initiative, called “Haver,” is to encourage members of the haredi public to sign a declaration in front of their community or synagogue rabbi that they either have no access to the Internet at all, or that they have only rabbinically approved devices, with content filters, which they need for work purposes.
Anyone signing this declaration will be awarded a membership certificate which, in the language of the publicity material, “testifies that he counts himself among those who fear the word of God.”Haredi rabbis and communal leaders have waged an ongoing and increasingly fierce battle against access to the Internet, in large part due to the proliferation and availability of pornography.The Haver initiative has only just been rolled out and a big membership drive was launched on Thursday, with many hundreds of people signing up."
The funny thing is that on our computers, there is software, both in the office and at home can block disreputable sites,so that is all this group's Posek or Rabbis need to say, if that is the issue/problem/concern.
The article continues :
"Concerns have been voiced, however, about the second stage of the Haver project. After the initial sign-up period, lists of those who have signed up will be posted at synagogues in the haredi neighborhoods of the city, which organizers say will be “to glorify the names of the members.”
It is feared that membership in the Haver program could be used as a de facto way to determine someone’s haredi identity and that those who do not sign up will be excluded from communal benefits such as access to community charities, schools and other institutions".
Ah, so is this really because the community leaders here wish to control information that their people read on the net & don't want them to be influenced by other, outside ideas . That just won't work; the Mullahs of Iran try to police ideas on the internet, so does China. But not even they can completely control the flow of information on the web. It is futile to think that you can do so and it is better in my view to have frank and full discussions about ideas or theology, even heretical ones. Shutting down debate or other views without any discussion or explanation means, to me, going from a religious community to the slippery slope of a cult.
Discuss.
