A US-Based Haredi Move To Ban Communication Technology?

The Skulener Rebbe and Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon of Lakewood Yeshiva (the man behind the blog ban of several years ago) have called a meeting of all New York City-area haredi rabbis to discuss the "havoc and destruction that modern technology is wreaking" on the haredi community. Could it be that a new, comprehensive ban will be issued? Salomon has been particularly upset that information about haredi sexual predators, like Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, is published on the Internet and is readily available to anyone. Salomon has allegedly covered up many cases of child sexual abuse.

From this week's Hamodia:

[Hat Tip: BeenThereDoneThat.]

Comments

[Apikorus Al Ha'esh]

I like the reference to "...literally the entire spectrum of chareidi Jewry." In other words, the spectrum from black to black.

[Anon]

"The organizers note that due to difficulties with mail service, numerous Rabbanim and Roshei Yeshiva have reported that they have not yet received their invitation."

SEND THEM AN EMAIL!

Oh, yeah... I forgot.. that is banned!

[BenZvi]

what is the source for the information that "Solomon was particularly upset"
...that info regarding kolko was readily available?
Did he write that anywhere?
Did he make any public proclamation of some sort?

I can't just take it at face value that Mashgiach Solomon would continue
To prefer that kolko be swept under the rug again.

[danny]

Skulener Rebbe???

Never heard of them. Is there a list of all of the Chassidic sub-groups.

[maven]

The funniest part of the article is at the end when they state that they've been having difficulty reaching everyone through non-digital media...

[jancsipista]

oy gevalt let us daven that this ban will only effect those that really need to be affected by that i mean the fanatical few who isolate themselfs from the real world.

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

It's an airport date for the rebbes! Does this mean they're trying to arrange shiduchim for themselves?

[chaim36]

I also hope that these organizations refuse any monies given to them by tech. savy donors who use tech. for parnasaw.

[Dr. Dave]

Luddites

[moshe]

Danny, you never heard of the Skulener Rebbe? He's a great tzaddik that did more good than you or any else that posts here can ever hope to do.

At least try to hide your ignorance instead of flaunting it.

[mmm]

i would have no issue with these guys if the also met from time to time on how to alleviate other issue; economic and social haradim face

[anuran]

OK, moshe. Explain how this leader of a tiny, obscure totalitarian cult has done "more good" than anyone here can ever hope to.

Is it because he mumbles incantations in dead languages?

Is it because he coerces lots of people into shunning all real education in favor of obsessive regurgitation of thousand year old legal opinions?

Is it because his mother, grandmothers and great-grandmothers fucked black-hatted witch shamans like him?

Is it because he takes money from the government and less-religious Jews to give to members of his cult so they don't have to deal with the real world?

Enlighten us, please. Explain how this is better than one house built by Habitat for Humanity, one day pounding the pavement getting people to vote, or one life saved by teaching a first aid class.

[anuran]

Oh yeah, the biggie, is it because he forces women to adhere to standards of repression that would make most Arabs vomit in disgust?

[moshe]

Too all you narrow minded people who think that hareidim can do no good.

The Skulener Rebbe has devoted his life to help people in need, both physical and spiritual. His organization, Chesed L'avrohom, is known for the many people it has helped. In addition, he has renounced worldly pleasures, eats and sleeps very little. He is following in the footsteps of his great father. They both risked their lives to preserve Judaism in communist Roumania. The current Skelener Rebbe was tortured in front of his father and bore the wounds on his body for many years. And I just have a slight acquaintance with the Rabbi. Those that know him better can say much more.

So my dear open minded friends, what do you hope to accomplish that will come close to this? Encourage gay marriage? recycle bottles? Or perhaps ensure that Rubashkin spends every day of his life in prison?

[Sam Green]

lol anuran moshes crazy

[jancsipista]

moshe-are you bragging or what? about the skuleners good deeds if you are shame on you,you dont know what others do maybee they are very kind giving tzedekah even anuran you sound to me like a bal gavah i was by the father of the current skulener rebbe over 50 years ago i am not a hassid but as far as i know hassidim are suppose to be kind even to those who dont write favoribly about them .

[jancsipista]

moshe- sorry didnt see what anuran wrote before he is vile i take back what i wrote

[Guest]

Isn't Solomon the one who outed the child molester in Lakewood? He told the parents to go to the police.

They sued Salomon in Bet Din for having the gall to out the child molester.

Gotta give credit when credit is due.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

oy gevalt let us daven that this ban will only effect those that really need to be affected by that i mean the fanatical few who isolate themselfs from the real world.

Posted by: jancsipista

gee, I am not so sure, Jancsipista.
It says:
v'chol ha-zei-dim k're-ga yo-vei-du!

[shish]

@moshe, you make really good points. Let's go through them one by one.

"The Skulener Rebbe...His organization, Chesed L'avrohom, is known for the many people it has helped"

I would be interested to see the tax returns of Chesed L'avrahom. So many Haredi organizations have been found to be covers for illegal money laundering (this is fact, not conjecture...do you need proof?) that I feel more comfortable giving to secular charities instead, which tend to be run by more honest individuals.

"In addition, he has renounced worldly pleasures, eats and sleeps very little."

The Skulener Rebbe sounds alot like me. I definitely don't eat or sleep enough. Do you include eating and sleeping very little in the "accomplishments" you claim the Skulener Rebbe to have achieved?

"He is following in the footsteps of his great father. They both risked their lives to preserve Judaism in communist Roumania."

By "preserving Judaism", do you mean "preserving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism"? If so, then we have no choice but to vitriolically condemn the Skulener Rebbe for attempting to impose his personal brand of Hasidic oppression upon the poor Jewish souls in Romania. Thank god he failed in this endeavor (as I don't think there is much Judaism in Romania these days).

"The current Skelener Rebbe was tortured in front of his father and bore the wounds on his body for many years"

In what way is this an "accomplishment"?? Witnessing your father's torture is somehow interpreted as a mark of nobility to you??

"So my dear open minded friends, what do you hope to accomplish that will come close to this?"

Well, my dear close-minded friend, given that you haven't listed a single credible "accomplishment" of the Skulener Rebbe, I would imagine that most people have actually accomplished alot MORE than your failed Rebbe.

"Encourage gay marriage?"

Actually, anyone who campaigns on behalf of a discriminated population (in this case, the gays), has indeed accomplished much, both ethically and practically. I'm not sure why you think helping out an oppressed population is a bad thing. Has the Skulener Rebbe taught you to oppress people that are different than you??? If so, the Skulener Rebbe should be wholeheartedly condemned as a harmful and evil man. Ahmadinejad of Iran, Bashar al Assad of Syria, Khaled Meshaal of Hamas, and the late Osama bin Laden of Al Qaeda, all agree with you that the gays should continue to be oppressed...should the Skulener Rebbe be included in this group of leaders?

"recycle bottles?"

Hmmm...so preserving the planet for future generations is a bad thing to you? Is this just your opinion, or is also the opinion of the Skulener Rebbe? If both you and the Skulener Rebbe think preserving the planet for future generations is a waste of time, then we must unfortunately condemn the Skulener Rebbe, once again, for not caring about other people besides himself and those with whom he immediately comes in contact. Oy gevalt...what a terrible man, if he is truly anti-conservation.

I guess the upshot of all this is that I remain confused as to the accomplishments of the Skulener Rebbe. Based on the things you said so far, it sounds like he is probably a pretty corrupt man! Oy yoy yoy...

[Guest]

Posted by: anuran | September 16, 2011 at 12:47 PM

Comments like these show that you are so full of hatred that you have no interest in whether what you say is true or not.

The Skulener Rebbe is one of the only rabbis that are universally respected. He has never bothered anyone. He is a holy man. All he cares about is the well being of his fellow Jew. He runs Chesed L'Avrohom, a huge chesed organization. He is a man that does not let himself enjoy the pleasures of this world.

He is not part of any Agudah-type organization. He lives his modest life, doesn't bother anyone.

What is your issue with him?

When you say things like that, you show how ignorant and hateful you are.

[shish]

The Skulener Rebbe...has never bothered anyone...all he cares about is the well being of his fellow Jew.

Posted by: Guest | September 16, 2011 at 02:18 PM

Really? That's all he cares about?

Guest, you are the one who is ignorant for not realizing that the attempt to ban "technology" is a form of oppression. Ostracizing individuals from a community for using iphones, stigmatizing community members for reading the nytimes online, or punishing people for attempting to educate themselves through "technology", are all classic attempts to control one's followers.

Thus, the Skulener's Rebbe's attempt to ban "technology" is the furthest thing from an attempt to "help" his fellow Jews. On the contrary, it is an attempt to further subjugate them to his will.

So, please, enough of your Artscoll hagiography...

[Mendy Hecht]

Banning technology doesn't help. At one point in history, cars, phones, and even newspapers were "technology." There was always an underground for sin--even in the Victorian days of complete prudishness. This is well intended but will only backfire.

[BenZvi]

Shmarya writes: " Salomon has been particularly upset that information about haredi sexual predators, like Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, is published on the Internet and is readily available to anyone."
Salomon has allegedly covered up many cases of child sexual abuse.

I'm asking you again Mr. Rosenberg,
Please provide the source for what you purport to be fact.
Is it fact?

[lion]

dear benzvi

i was at at an event in brooklyn where solomon was asked about the internet and about kolko

he said the dangers of the internet require a ban on it in the houses as they did in lakewood

and he said vloggers have created an impossible chilul hashem ( i asked him was it the crimes committed or the bloggers that were the chillul hashem befor people started screaming chutzpa at me

since then i dont give lakewood a dime and dont call any of their people a gadol

[x chusid]

Skulener rebba may have started an org called chesed lavroham. Today he does not run anything. His henchmen run it and he trusts them for all the wrong reasons

[skeptical]

Can anyone give me an example of a leader or regime that suppressed their followers' access to information that is considered to be a force for good? It sounds like this guy would be happier if he took his followers and went to North Korea. That way, none of them would be enjoying life and he could be assured that they would have no access to modern communications. If in fact, he was repressed and cut off from communicating in his earlier life, I pity him, but he is playing out an unfortunate acquired identification with the role of oppressor, even if he denies it. Unfortunately, this is a not uncommon symptom with torture victims, but there is no reason for everyone else to support this symptom of mental illness.

[Alana]

"Salomon has been particularly upset that information about haredi sexual predators, like Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, is published on the Internet and is readily available to anyone."

You need that info to keep people aware of their surroundings. I can just see the abduction rates increasing once that info is banned!

[Ferdy Ferd]

Please excuse me for a minute, I must get something off my chest.

Fuck the Tendlers, and fuck them and re-fuck them again again and again.

Ok, and fuck Salomon too.

[Gefilte Fish]

If the ban was instituted in order to protect the tender minds of chassidim, it would be somewhat understandable. (Can't have them see a naked collar bone, after all.) Backwards, yes, but still undestandable. However, it was instituted to protect pedophiles----that's why it's beyond reprehensible.

[Litvish]

Anuran

I love your spirited hidushim on the Skulener m'nuvolim.

"Is it because his mother, grandmothers and great-grandmothers fucked black-hatted witch shamans like him?"

This has got to be my favorite line in your comment.

I pray that the Holy One, Blessed be He, will continue to inspire you in your divrei Torah.

your fan,

Litvish

[The Nudnik]

"...Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon of Lakewood Yeshiva..."

The same Lakewood Yeshiva which sends out emails which need Internet access to be read?

The same Lakewood Yeshiva which has had a registered domain name since 2001? Currently, it appears to be be used for email but not for a website.

http://reports.internic.net/cgi/whois?whois_nic=bmg.edu&type=domain

Domain Name: BMG.EDU

Registrant:
BETH MEDRASH GOVOHA
601 Private way
LAKEWOOD, NJ 08701
UNITED STATES

Administrative Contact:
AARON KOTLER
BETH MEDRASH GOVOHA
509 CAREY STREET
Lakewood, NJ 08701
UNITED STATES
(732)367-1060 x295
akotler@bmg.edu

Technical Contact:
Pessy Pollack
BETH MEDRASH GOVOHA
601 Private way
Lakewood, NJ 08701
UNITED STATES
(732)367-1060 x298
ppollack@bmg.edu

Name Servers:
DNS01.GPN.REGISTER.COM
DNS02.GPN.REGISTER.COM
DNS03.GPN.REGISTER.COM
DNS04.GPN.REGISTER.COM
DNS05.GPN.REGISTER.COM

Domain record activated: 25-Jan-2001
Domain record last updated: 26-Dec-2008
Domain expires: 31-Jul-2012

[Jay]

the business people who support him need Internet to make money. and everyitme you processes a customer's credit card you are essentially going online to see if the card will work.