More Than 40,000 Ultra-Orthodox Jews Hold Rally About Risks of Internet

by Alex Fitzpatrick
posted May 23, 2012

More than 40,000 of New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish men gathered at Queens’ Citi Field and another nearby stadium Sunday evening to discuss the danger the Internet can pose to the moral fabric of their community if it’s used in thoughtless or religiously deviant ways.

Inside the stadium, rabbis led the sold-out crowd in evening prayers and warned of the Internet’s ability to spread “filth,” such as pornography or hate speech. The rally was sponsored by Ichud Hakehillos Letohar Hamachane, a rabbinical group with ties to a software outlet that makes an Internet filtering app for Orthodox Jews, according to The New York Times.

The thousands of attendees at Citi Field and 20,000 others at an overflow event at a nearby tennis stadium were eager to discuss the web and its impact on ultra-Orthodox life.

Thousands of women watched the proceedings from afar in viewing parties, as ultra-Orthodox law prohibits the mixing of the sexes.

“There is a very significant downside to the Internet,” Eytan Kobre, one of the event’s organizers, told The Associated Press. “It does pose a challenge to us in various aspects of our lives,” he added, citing the distractions posed by online pornography, gambling and social media as as a threat to ultra-Orthodox Jews’ “ability to pray uninterruptedly, to focus and to concentrate.”  the rest

More photos at First Things