Wordsmoker

Ok, so like a train load of Jews are getting together in New York on May 20th to denounce the evils of the internet (porn) and to declare that it must be removed from homes or severely filtered. As it turns out the guy funding the event is the owner of B&H Photo in NYC. So basically the profit from selling technologically advanced electronics is funding an event meant to put the kibosh on the use of technologically advanced electronics. Go figure……

Orthodox Jews are already obsessive in terms of closing themselves off to the world around them. For example, many of them don’t own a TV (and they dont watch online either.) Some don’t read newspapers, at least ones that weren’t printed by other Orthodox Jews. Many don’t listen to the radio. The idea of course is fear of hearing ideas or seeing things that are contrary to and challenge their religiously held beliefs. I for one am in favor of every human talking advantage of the time he or she has on this planet to learn, read, study, research, discover, and explore as much as we can. Fearing new ideas to me is the lowest form of human misery and the highest form of a wasted life. 

As an aside, there are many Ultra Orthodox Jews who own televisions but they made the store deliver them in an Air Conditioning box so the neighbors wont know what they are really getting. 

Besides for the guy who profits off of computer sales backing this event, the organizer, according to a recent report, is a well known child abuser. Not in any sort of sexual way, but just in a violent way. A website covering this event posted an email they received from a former student of this orginizer: …

I went to the school and experienced first-hand the viciousness of this Nazi. This is besides for the fact that he knowingly lied to the parents and gedolim (=rabbis) who inquired about it; but that’s not the issue. He used to beat me and the other kids all the time. I’m talking about punching, slapping, kicking, throwing us on the floor and stepping on us. I was all of eight years old at the time.

Oh, and he also owns or has a financial interest in an internet filtering company, a company that will be featured in the “Technology Expo” that will commence about two hours before the speeches begin. 

Women aren’t allowed to attend this function. 

The rabbis who are organized this are presenting it as though all segments of the Jewish population are welcome. This of course isnt true, as you may or may not know, there are like 30 different types of Orthodox Jews. There are Hassidim, the ones you’ve seen walking around in black coats and hats in the dead of a summer heatwave. There are ultra religious “Litvoks” – Jews styled after the more culturally attuned and Pre holocaust WW2 communities found in Lithuania. Then there are the Modern Orthodox; their flagship institution is Yeshiva University. The University was ran for many decades by a Rabbi, Scholar, and Doctor in Philosophy from the University of Berlin. Those people are fully in tune with American culture, they partake in as much as the world has to offer all the while still retaining their belief in a Jewish God and the laws they believe He imparted in the Torah. Within these three basic groups, there are subgroups that number in the 10s or 20s. 

But even so the event will only allow speakers from certain groups and not others. Basically they’ll be happy to take your $10 seat ticket, but they’d never let your modern rabbi speak.

A fellow who has been continuously writing against this event has had his blog added to a restricted sites list on a popular Jewish internet filter. 

Some people have been organizing a counter protest to take place in the parking field of City Stadium with the following mission statemet”

On Sunday, May 20th, 2012, thousands are expected to gather in Citi Field to rally against the perceived evils of the internet. Join us for a massive counter rally to bring awareness to a far bigger problem in the Frum (ultra-orthodox Jewish) community: keeping our children safe.​