FailedMessiah.com

The Internet, Religion, Transparency, And Battling Tyranny

“Blogs like UOJ and Failed Messiah, along with the Awareness Center, were instrumental in fostering the anti-abuse movement in the Orthodox community, publicizing stories of abuse and exposing those (often powerful and until then, untouchable) people, who enabled it and connecting survivors and advocates who went on to effect real change in the world.”

Former Haredi Mayor Loses Appeal In Suit Against Haredi Bloggers

 post has been edited after feb 3 2016

after the purchase of FM by diversified holdings   

iPhones Make Mikvas Unkosher, Invalidate Weddings And Divorces, Leading Haredi Rabbi Rules

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky says anyone who owns an iPhone or similar phone or device that has full internet capabilities is halakhicly considered damaged and is therefore forbidden to serve as a witness at a wedding or a divorce. If an iPhone user with such a smartphone had already served as a witness at a wedding or a divorce, then the wedding or divorce is invalid and must be done over again, and this holds true not only a priori, but also as a secondary position (i.e., even b’diavad). And this holds true for many other things, including the validity of women's mikvas.

Internet Goes Against God's Creation, Haredi Rabbi Insists

Speaking at a haredi anti-Internet rally held Thursday in Modi'in Illit, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ulman, the rosh yeshiva (dean) of Modi'in Illit's Beit Din (haredi religious court) asserted that the internet goes against what G-d created, and since the time of creation until now there has never existed a challenge like this.

Satmar's Williamsburg Faction Orders All Hasidim To Agree To Censorship Requirements Ordered By Its Leader; Those Who Do Not Comply Will Be Expelled

The Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum has ordered immediate and complete compliance with new Internet and cellphone bans. Those hasidim who do not comply will be excommunicated from Satmar and their children will be expelled from Satmar schools.

Video: Satmar Anti-Internet Rally In Brooklyn

Here's a brief video of Satmar's anti-Internet rally which took place in Brooklyn Sunday.

Haredim In Israel To Launch A “Kosher” Smartphone Despite Ban

Rabbi David Zilbershlag – who reportedly said the Internet is viewed by haredi rabbinic leaders as "the greatest threat of all time” – also asserted that haredi leaders will eventually need to set up their own private “Internet” in the future, something similar to the closed Internet owned and operated by the Pentagon, to create "a clean environment with [set] boundaries" so haredim do not come into contact with foreign ideas or immodest pictures and movies while surfing.

Video: Haredi Anti-Internet Rally In Brooklyn

Last night's anti-Internet rally in Borough Park was a uniform sea of black and white, and while railing against the Internet is a popular haredi rabbi pastime, so far no haredi communities have held an anti-child-sex-abuse rally or an anti-fraud-and-theft rally.

OU: "The Chassidish and Chareidi World: An Unsustainable Economy And The Onslaught Of Self-Hating Jew-Bloggers

Steven Savitsky is a former president of the Orthodox Union. Yesterday, he interviewed his close friend, Ami Magazine's editor and publisher Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter, who Savitsky says he respects greatly, for his regular OU.org podcast. The title? "The Chassidish and Chareidi World: An Unsustainable Economy and the Onslaught of Self-Hating Jew-Bloggers."

Agudath Israel Of America Plans To Enhance Newsletter To Deliver "News" To Haredi Followers – And Uses The Banned Internet To Do It

Agudath Israel of America, the large haredi umbrella organization known for opposing things like Internet use, has a survey posted on the Internet now. It asks members to explain their news-reading habits in order to better prepare Agudah for its release of a "newsletter" meant to spin news and to compete with those news sources.

Mea Shearim Anti-Internet Rally Fizzles

"Perhaps due to the late hour on the short erev shabbos or due to other factors, the number of participants was limited to a few avreichim and children, who carried signs 'The Shechina is not driven out – Here there are no computers or internet' regarding homes and mosdos that are computer and internet free."

Video: Agudah Head Attacks Bloggers At Opening Of Agudah Convention

The great threats to the haredi world apparently are the media and  bloggers which the haredi world "suffer[s] from," Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, Agudath Israel of America's most senior rabbi, said at the today's opening of the group's national convention. Rabbi Uren Reich attacked NYC for its stance on metzitzah b'peh, making the inane remark that there are lots of dangerous things people do every day, and NYC doesn't regulate them.

Agudah Convention To Deal With 'Important' Issues Of The Day: Internet, Heretic Bloggers, Preserving Penis Sucking Ritual

The theme of this year's Agudah convention is, "our responsibilities to one another in times of challenge." But judging from Agudah's convention program, these "responsibilities" apparently do not include responsibilities to sexually abused children, agunot, beaten wives and children, or the victims of a multitude of haredi scams.

Haredi Children Protest Internet In Jerusalem

A group of haredi children in Jerusalem used their lunch break yesterday to stage a small protest march against the evil Internet.

Leading Haredi Rabbis Call On Schools To Ban Kids Whose Parents Have Internet

Rabbi Shmuel HaLevi Wosner issued a public ruling today calling on all haredi schools to ban students whose parents have Internet access. Wosner is the leading hasidic posek, authority on Jewish law. Underneath Wosner's signature is the signature of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the non-hasidic equivalent of Wosner.

Female Porn Stars More Spiritual Than Non-Porn Stars, Study Finds

A new study published in the Journal of Sex Research shows that female porn stars are more spiritual and have a higher self-esteem than other women with similar ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. There was no difference in rates of child sexual abuse between the two groups.

Abusive Chabad Rabbi, Fired By Chabad After Years Of Complaints, Appeals His Dismissal To Rabbinical Court

A Chabad rabbinical court in Brooklyn will hear a complaint from a violent, abusive Chabad rabbi who – after years of complaints by fellow Chabad followers and rabbis in Melbourne, Australia to Chabad leadership there –  was finally fired by Chabad several weeks ago.

Haredi Magazine Compares Resisting Smartphone Use To Surviving The Holocaust

A graphic in the haredi Yiddish language magazine Shtralen, which is distributed in haredi communities in New York, compares stopping smartphone use to other tests haredim have had to overcome: closing businesses on Shabbat and the Holocaust.

Video: We Ban Smartphones So They Can Keep Jews Living In Ghettos, Rabbi Says

Why are haredi rabbis banning smartphones and unfiltered Internet? Why, to keep Jews living in ghettos, one of the haredi rabbis behind the move says.

Yemenite "Mega Church" Kiruv Rabbi And Anti-Technology Campaigner Caught Using iPhone

Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak photographed using an iPhone on Hol Hamoed Sukkot – but he claims that he has an excuse.

Video: Haredi Simchat Torah Smartphone Destruction

Destroy the 'avodah zara,' idol worship by destroying your smartphone Sefardi haredi rabbi urges.

Haredi Rabbis Wage Anti-Smartphone War On Simchat Torah

Rabbi orders follower to smash smartphone, telling the man that doing so is a "kiddush Hashem," and that it is also a fulfillment of the biblical verse, "Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones." (Deuteronomy 7:5)

Burn iPhones, Haredi Rabbi Rules

A senior haredi rabbi has ruled that not only it is forbidden to own an iPhone, it is forbidden to sell or give one to a non-Jew. There, the rabbi says, you must burn them.

Rabbi Smashes iPhone, Rants Against Those "Abominations" And "Vile Villains" Who Own One

“A religious person who owns this impure device is an abomination and a disgusting, vile villain.”

Bais Rochel & Monsey Rabbinic Va'ad Internet Questionnaire

Rabbi Moshe Green's va'ad and Bais Rochel School for Girls ask detailed, intrusive questions of parents and demand answers.

Thousands Of London Haredim Attend Anti-Internet Gathering

"Advice provided by a Charedi technology company showed how parents could protect their children by keeping computers and other devices locked in cupboards or by employing internet filtering and monitoring systems. This firm will even intercept emails — with your permission — and check them for unsuitable material."

Bais Yaakov Of Ramapo Internet Standards

The rules on Internet usage for students even off school grounds, are sent to parents, who must sign a pledge to follow them.

Haredi Students To Get Tablet Computers, Mobile Devices

Two haredi school networks, Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani and the Shuvo, have agreed to join the technology program, which is sponsored by Israel’s Ministry of Education.

Israel Gas Receipt: iPhone Delays The Messiah

Israeli gas receipt reads: "Type of fill: Regular; Type of credit: regular; 400 NIS [about $99]", and then has this note: "It's been 1,944 years since the destruction of our Bais Hamikdash [the holy Temple in Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans in 68 CE]. If you continue to use your iPhone, you will be delay its rebuilding [even more].”

Zionist Orthodox Rabbis Launch Their Own Version Of A “Kosher” Smart Phone

Rabbi Avinoam Horowitz, principal of the Kiryat Arba Zionist Orthodox public high school, said that the objective of Telephonetto is to create unanimous opposition by Zionist Orthodox teachers to unfiltered smart phones, which cause the "mutilating the students' souls,” referring to the impact uncensored science, history and news he believes can have on teens.

"The Internet Is Poison"

A sign in Monsey, New York warns haredim to stay away from the Internet.

Artscroll, The Rabbis, The Talmud, The iPad And The Internet

One “feature” that comes with the app and cannot be turned off is a warning screen that appears as soon as the Digital Talmud is loaded. “Note,” the screen reads. “This app does not require the Internet for daily use. Following the ruling of leading rabbinic authorities, web devices should be used only with filters.”

Tangled Web: Haredim And The Internet

NY1 has a new documentary series on haredi and the Internet, focusing on issues of rabbinic censorship, threats of violence, and the covering up of haredi-committed crime by haredi leadership. Here's part 1.

Ami Magazine Endorses Violence, Condemns…Bloggers

The editors of the haredi publication Ami Magazine, who called bloggers Nazis in a previous issue and have published much similarly extreme rhetoric, have now written and published an editorial endorsing vigilante violence and condemning bloggers. And there's no mistaking who Ami's editors would like you to physically attack.

Prosecute Haredi Website Execs For Extortion, Police Say

Israel Police say they now have enough evidence to prosecute the director-general of the Behadrei Haredim news website, his deputy, and three other employees for extortion, and have turned their findings over to prosecutors.

Hasidic Rebbe Says "Non-Kosher" Cellphones Can Be Destroyed On Shabbat

"One of the matters the rebbe wishes to place an emphasis on is non-kosher cellular phones, telling his rabbonim that if an avreich is apprehended with a “treif phone” they are empowered to break the phone, to smash it and they will not be liable for damages. One of the more extreme rulings being reported in the rebbe’s name is that if they find a treif phone hidden somewhere in the yeshiva they may even take it on shabbos and smash it, explaining the reality necessitates chilul shabbos."

Satmar: You Can't Lead Prayer Services If You Have Unfiltered Internet

The Satmar synagogue in Lakewood, New Jersey forbids men who have unfiltered Internet access from leading prayer services.

The Internet Is Bad Because It Can Connect You With Zionists, Satmar Rebbe Says

Satmar Rebbe says the Internet is bad because you can meet Zionists and other evil people online and read their ideas.

Internet By Proxy: Haredim Hire "Shabbos Goyim" To Use Internet 24/6 So Haredim Won't Have To

A hasidic organization is offering "Shabbos goyim" to haredim. The "Shabbos goyim" would do Internet searches and other online tasks during the week so that haredim who need to use the Internet won't have to.

New Haredi Internet Rules

Rules for dealing with the Internet based on the new ruling by Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner, the Shevet HaLevi.

The Work Of A Sofer Or Schochet Who Has An Unflitered Internet Connection Is Not Kosher, Haredi Rabbi Rules

Today's Hamodia in Israel reports that a leading haredi halakhic authority, Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wozner of Bnei Brak, has ruled that the Torahs, tefillin, megillot and mezzuzot written by a sofer (ritual scribe) who has an unfiltered Internet connection are passul, invalid, and that animals slaughtered by a schochet (ritual slaughterer) who has an unfiltered Internet connection are not kosher because his slaughter is invalid.

Satmar Internet Use Questionnaire For Parents

Fess up, Satmar says, or there will be consequences.

Satmar Internet Rules

If you want your kid(s) to be in Satmar schools, these are the rules you have to follow with regard to Internet use and smart phones.

British Haredim To Rally Against The Internet

The date of the rally hasn't been set, and its exact form hasn't been decided, but inspired by the massive haredi anti-Internet London's rally in New York last month, London's haredi community is planning its own public event against the dangers of the Internet.

The Latest Haredi Anti-Internet Ban

A haredi synagogue in Flatbush, Brooklyn has added a new ban to the haredi fight against the Internet.

Censoring News: Two Haredi 'News' Websites Censor Articles In Response To Community Pressure

A Chabad site posts and then later removes an article detailing calls for a Chabad rabbi to resign over child sex abuse coverup allegations and VIN News removes an op-ed on the completion of the Daf Yomi cycle by Rabbi Natan Slifkin.

Video: Excommunicate Bloggers Who Question Rabbis, Haredi Rabbi Says

While in the audience of last Sunday's massive haredi anti-Internet gathering in CitiField stadium, Rabbi Paysach Krohn, the English-speaking haredi world's leading maggid (moralizing public speaker; preacher) called for excommunicating bloggers who anonymously criticize rabbis ("Da'as Torah"), and says that rabbis should ban all blog comments and force bloggers and news websites to close down their comments sections.

Internet Caused Fatal Car Accident, Haredi Rabbis Say

A car crash that killed eight members of one family happened due to the spiritual weakness the Jewish people is suffering because of Internet use, Rabbi Ahron Leib Steinman and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky said.

Lakewood Yeshiva Bans Internet

Bais Medrash Govoha, commonly known as Lakewood Yeshiva, has banned students, single or married, from having the Internet in their homes or on their phones. The only exception is when the Internet is needed to earn a living, in which case a senior rabbi must approve and a filter must be installed. But students are forbidden from having the Internet on their phones, even if filtered. The ban extends to spouses and children, and to anyone else living in the home. The rabbis who organized Sunday's massive anti-Internet gathering in NYC are from Lakewood.

Video: Haredi Anti-Internet Gathering Participant And Protester Interviews

A video of brief interviews with participants and counter protesters at Sunday's haredi anti-Internet gathering. Eytan Kobre, the spokesperson for the haredi anti-Internet gathering, lies to the videographer and says that it was CitiField's decision not to have facilities for media. In fact, organizers tried to ban the press unless it first agreed to allow organizers to censor their reports and images, and organizers made a specific decision not to have any press facilities.