The Internet is prevailing over rabbis as haredi advertisers seek ways to circumvent modesty rules. Data from the Bezeq phone company does provide information about the number of people in haredi residential areas who connect to the Internet. This week Bezeq said 34% of Haredi households now use the company's Internet service. These figures don't include additional haredi households that connect to the Internet using HOT, or those who surf the Web with smartphones or using wireless networks.
By the grace of God, and Mark Zuckerberg
Internet is prevailing over rabbis as Haredi advertisers seek ways to circumvent modesty.
By Nati Tucker • The Marker / Ha’aretz
"What's hiding behind the black?"
That's the opening line of a Facebook page created by a group called "Haredim - Pleased to meet you," which aims to offer a glimpse into the Haredi world. With more than 4,000 virtual friends, the site aims to facilitate discussions with the non-observant world about the many points of friction between the two.
The very creation of a Facebook page dedicated to Haredim defies the odds, given the abhorrence of ultra-orthodox rabbis for the Internet. The faithful are regularly ordered to steer clear of the abomination and to stay offline.
And yet, the allure of Internet has prevailed. Not only are the Haredim online, but they've joined the Web 2.0 age and are active on social networking sites. They've also discovered how to make money on Facebook, and they're doing a good deal of business online.
The Haredi encounter with the Internet began with the popular website B'Hadrei Haredim, which touts itself as the biggest Haredi portal in the world. The name is a pun on the phrase "B'hadrei Hadarim," which means "behind closed doors."
Founded in 2002, and owned by Global Networks, B'Hadrei Haredim began as an underground arena for observant Jews who were compelled to shatter convention: These Jews fought against the hegemony of politicos and did not shy away from attacking the sector's leaders, publishing information that would never see the light of day in the regular Haredi media.
Over the years, the tone of the forum has cooled, and the site has transformed into the portal it is today.
Several rival sites have since cropped up, such as Kikar Hashabat, Ladaat and others. It is impossible to say how many Haredim surf the Web today, and various surveys offer contradictory statistics. Some indicate that 10% of the Haredi population uses the Internet, while others state that 83% of respondents say they at least use e-mail. It's difficult to zero in on a more accurate figure, in part due to the difficulty in defining "Haredi" and in part due to dishonest respondents.
Data from the Bezeq phone company does provide information about the number of people in Haredi residential areas who connect to the Internet. In 2007, 18% of Haredi households linked to the Internet using Bezeq. By 2009, that figure rose to 26%, and this week Bezeq said 34% of Haredi households now use the company's Internet service. These figures don't include additional Haredi households that connect to the Internet using HOT, or those who surf the Web with smartphones or using wireless networks.
Whatever the actual figure, the use of the Internet by Haredim is no longer underground.
"Today, surfing the Internet is out there, said Shimi Segal, content manager at the Haredi Website Kikar Hashabat. "Today, every Haredi who asks his rabbi for permission to surf the Internet for work purposes receives permission, because there are Internet providers who can censor content that a person wouldn't want to access."
The Internet isn't only a work tool, Segal adds. "We've reached a point in time where Internet is also becoming entertainment," Segal said. "The Haredi public is surfing and visiting sites to have fun and to get visual information that isn't available elsewhere."
Meanwhile, Haredi sites offer Internet access without fear of exposure to foul content, Segal explains. This is how the ultra-orthodox discovered social networking sites.
The Haredi world stresses the importance of interpersonal connections, both in terms of family and community; the Internet expands that networking capacity worldwide, Segal said.
More than a few Haredim have found business opportunities through social networking sites. Yehudit Delevkovitz, owner and chief executive officer of the company Buzzilcom, uses social media for marketing purposes. She began by surfing Haredi forums and discovered that she was an "Internet animal" with a rare ability to attract a large readership.
"I started like a lot of other Haredim on the B'Hadrei Haredim forum in the early 2000s. Things were hopping there," she recalls. "In the meantime, I worked in marketing, and my husband said to me, 'If you got a shekel for each bit of nonsense you wrote online, you'd be a millionaire by now.'"
With that statement, an entrepreneur was born. Delevkovitz took her husband's advice and joined a non-observant company aimed at creating PR buzz on the Internet for customers that included political candidates.
"During election campaigns, I'd constantly be posting comments in favor of the candidates the company was promoting," Delevkovitz said.
Her real eureka moment came in 2006 after a Facebook campaign led her to realize that she could use the Internet to create her own success.
Delevkovitz opened her own marking company focused on the use of social media. Today it has dozens of clients, of which few are Haredi.
"Internet for me is 24/6 - not on Shabbat," she said. "I don't go to sleep at night and set everything aside. If I'm maintaining a client's Web page that has, for instance, a tourist attraction up north, and somebody asks a question at night, I answer him. During the day, I upload all sorts of funny status comments, or serious ones, to pull in a group of people, because that's the only way to make it work when uploading a client's link. You can't not reach out to people and not be nice. People don't come to Facebook to have things sold to them, but to connect with friends and have a good time."
Delevkovitz maintains that her work does not conflict with her ultra-orthodox lifestyle.
"It's first and foremost to make a living," she said. " My surfing today is entirely for clients. The moment it becomes 'parnusseh' for the home, the rabbis allow it." Delevkovitz also notes that there is a difference in the type of contact Haredim have online.
"The entire discussion is different," she said, adding, "Each platform has a different form of discourse. You have to know each community and know what sort of people belong to it and how to communicate with them."
Facebook bypasses modesty rules
Social media also presents a marketing opportunity for business owners who can't use regular media to promote their products.
The printed Haredi press is stringent when it comes to modesty and refuses to publish photographs of women. Some papers even ban addressing women at all and do not use the female form of verbs. Companies that target observant women, meanwhile, are forced to turn to the Internet to reach out to consumers, and they regularly adopt Facebook as an alternative to the Haredi press.
"Companies like these might advertise long-haired wigs using pictures that would not pass the censorship test of the Haredi Fleet Street," said Delevkovitz. "On Facebook, they dare to use female models. Even still, they don't deviate from basic rules of modesty."
A company called Galit Italy Wigs, which sells wigs to Haredi women, is highly active on Facebook, publishing catalogs that show the latest collection of wigs on models.
Another store in Bnei Brak, Iris Designer Dresses, uploads pictures of models decked out in expensive dresses for Haredi women.
"I have developed a community of faithful customers who want to stay connected with me and receive updates on new products," said the owner of a small company that sells accessories for women, who declined to be mentioned by name. "It's wonderful because it enables me to create a community of people around me who like my products, and I can also show them what we're talking about. These are things I could never do in the Haredi newspapers," she said.
The Jerusalem shop Halomot, which sells undergarments for women, also has a lively Facebook presence. The shop has 2,600 virtual friends who can visit the site for special deals such as a free bathing suit with purchases.
"Today there's a critical mass of Haredim, men and women, on Facebook," said Haredi businessman Avrhom Kanelsky, who owns Halomot. "Usually, they belong to the middle or upper class of the community." The lower classes are not a presence on Internet, he said.
Kanelsky ultimately found that Facebook didn't serve his marketing needs, however. The site is useful for advertising certain items, he said, "but when it comes to women's wear, sometimes a Haredi woman will prefer to drop by the nearest mall and buy there. Facebook is more a social network and less a sales network. I don't know anybody who's made his million dollars from Facebook - other than Mark Zuckerberg. It doesn't change the rules of marketing."
Adapting to a Jewish schedule
When addressing the Haredi community, social-media aficionados must be careful about their online activity.
"It didn't take me long to realize that there are a lot of Haredim in the social networks," said Stuart Schnee, owner of a marketing and public relations company from Beit Shemesh. "For instance, you have to think in terms of the Jewish household and its schedule. Also, if I upload a post on Saturday evening, I'll make sure that people abroad understand it went on the site after Shabbat went out, that I didn't violate the Sabbath."
Schnee recently used Facebook to promote a kosher cookbook by famed chef Efrat Libfroind, published by Feldheim. To his astonishment, within a couple of weeks, hundreds of people "liked" the book online, he said, "just to get a couple of recipes for free." Orders poured in for the book even before it was available on Amazon.
"We adapted the advertising schedule to the Jewish schedule and asked people, for instance, what they were making for the Shavuot holiday," Schnee said.
Big companies, meanwhile, typically use social media to address the general public and do not target the Haredim. They may advertise on the Haredi portals occasionally, but they do not tailor their social networking activity to the Haredi users.
"You have to understand that the stated Haredi position of the rabbis is anti-Internet, and certainly anti-social networks and everything that goes on there," said one leading Haredi advertiser. "I'd be glad if I could target Haredim on the social networks, but it's not a possibility for me."
Schnee said the rabbis with whom he conducts business online would be furious. While he does some work on Haredi sites, that work represents a small percentage of his business.
"The day you'll see a campaign for Haredim by Tnuva or Strauss on Facebook is nowhere near," he said.