BREAKING NEWS The Internet Kol Koreh to Silence all Voices: The Mother of All Bans
Rabbi Qadafi Protecting Tznius in Bengazi and Brooklyn
According to informed sources, a kol koreh (proclamation or ban) is being prepared in Lakewood and signatures are being solicited to:
- Ban all internet talkbacks, comments and forums
- Ban any news that is negative about any Jewish individual or group, by name or by hint
- Require every website to name its rabbinic advisor (i.e., censor)
- Require every website to name all authors and owners
If adopted it will force every website to defy the ban or convert itself into a pixilated equivalent of the heavily censored Homodiah and Yated Neeman. Even Matzav would have to drop its pseudonymous Rabbi Gavriel Rivlin and comments. Yeshiva World News would have to drop its popular and lively Coffee Room forums. Others affected would include the Jewish Press, Mishpacha Magazine, and Cross Currents. For that matter, we don’t even have any named rabbi-censors for any of the approved newspapers.
Here are some of the topics that could no longer be discussed:
- Child and spouse abuse (Rabbi Noach Oelbaum)
- Spouse abuse, substance abuse, and internet porn addiction (Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski)
- Alcohol abuse as addressed last Purim (Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky)
- Financial fraud as keynoted at the Agudah Convention in 2009 and acknowledged in an Agudah sponsored event with the Spinka Rebbe.
- Children at-risk of school failure
- Shalom bayis (marital) problems
Can the advocates of the ban really believe the problems will go away just because they ban talking about them? Do they think that the public doesn’t know about these problems? Lately people are muttering “aiyn bayis sh’aiyn bo meis.” The community is hungry for discussions that will lead to a tikkun (repair or restoration). But tikkun requires emes (truth), charatah (regret) and tshuvah (repentence). Censorship is the opposite of repair. Censorship is destructive and this new ban, one of the most extreme forms of censorship ever proposed, would be extremely destructive.
Honest rabbonim, and those of you who advise them, I beg you, do not support this ban. It will not stop the flow of information and dissent. It will not enhance respect for leadership. Instead, it will make baalabatim suspect that you have something to hide. It will lead to enormous chillul hashem (desecration of G-d’s name) and it will drive the masses in the community away from the leadership.
Yes there are embarrassing problems in the community. You can regain respect if you admit them and fix them. The torah is full of problems that would be censored by this ban. The torah is also full of stories about the greatness of leaders who admitted their mistakes and fixed them including Yehudah, Moshe, Aaron, Dovid Hamelech, and so on. Nobody would tear those sections out of the torah. Let’s not tear the stories about communal problems out of the orthodox media. Learn from the torah and follow its ways. Admit and discuss the community’s problems and fix them.
ACTION CALL- Please disseminate this posting and approach any individual who is a potential signer to share your thoughts about such a ban. If you wait until after the ban is out, it will be too late. I am not aware of any kol koreh that was rescinded after it was circulated. But many bans were averted before they appeared. There will not be any Shushan Purim for this kol koreh.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Breaking- New Internet Ban By Moetzes of Agudah Calls for Approved Filters and 3rd Party Monitors « FRUM FOLLIES by Yerachmiel Lopin
- Breaking- New Internet Ban By Moetzes of Agudah Calls for Approved Filters and 3rd Party Monitors « FRUM FOLLIES by Yerachmiel Lopin
- Maimonides on Internet Censorship, Martyrdom, and Hanging Corpses « yeshivaforum
This brings to memory the tales of the rabbinic councils who ran the ghettos in Europe and oppressed/persecuted all those who dissented from their narrowly defined derech.
Is this for real, or is it a Purim joke?
Chana, I always lablel my SATIRE as such. This is completely real. I have seen the actual document. I have not been given permission to post it. But it is real. Frightfully real. I have taken no liberties in summarizing its content.
Cat’s already out of the bag.
slowly but surely our ra=bonnim are making themselves completely irrelevant, they keep forgetting that they are not dealing anymore ,with the ignorant peasants of eastern and central europe,if they keep up with these ridiculous bans,they will become the laughing stock of the people.
they really are causing a big chillul hashem,with these idiotic and childish bans
Chana,
Yerachmiel believes this to be real.
This is great news! The good honest websites will defy the ban, but the supposedly kosher websites like matzav and yeshiva world that censor opposing viewpoints while bashing whoever they disagree with, those websites will be reigned in. I don’t really see a downside to this.
Totally agree.
Sites like this one will become the home page for all of us.
I don’t get it… Who cares?
Those Ra-bonim can not ban the internet, you will have thousands upon thousands of new websites who will post whatever they feel like.
Yes, it will kill VIN and the like, not a big deal for me. I actually prefer tons of anonymous sites, completely uncensured.
Haha this is the funniest joke I heard in a long time. Who listens to rabunim today? they keep on making fools out of themselves. Go on ban VIN again look at what a fool you made out of yourselfs. Keep it up losers
Its so ridiculous one just has to laugh. who do they think is listening to them anymore? Remember the ban on having internet in the house? There is not one girl or boy in my childrens classes that dont have computers with internet access. Who are they kidding?
Maybe there should be a Kol Koreh asking people to go to the police if they know of any child abusers in their neighborhoods.
Makes me wonder what the Lakewood rabbonim are trying to hide!
I hope you continue with your site. VIN used to be like yours, but they have been pressured and now will not post controversial topics. Keep up the good work. Hatzlocho.
As Yerachmiel points out the real problem is that with each ban, they set a new standard that spreads throughout a number of communities. For example, when a potential spouse or yeshiva learns which rabbi a prospective candidate follows, they will also know which websites are considered acceptable. It will add a new layer of chumrah, alienation and fear to a community that’s already burdened with an Orwellian intensity of oversight and paranoia.
I think you are right on target, Jay.
Well of course it will affect all paying sites. They will withdraw the supervision of products advertised there. I am not so sure how they will enforce it. At least these rabbis will have signed a hechsher on some sites which follow their rules. Something I never believed would ever happen. Give them a chance their hechsher (if you pay) will soon extend to all.
Yep, as I have learned lately, the vaad hatznius in Satmar is a corrupt money extortion scheme.
Great now we will have internet ignorant rabbis supervising the internet for others. Of course it wont be so hard for them now that they have eliminated interactivity. In fact if they eliminate links on pages they wont even have to deal with that pesky feature of the internet that makes it somewhat similar to the Talmud.
When they are finished they will look at the dead, static lifeless product and say, I don’t see why people think the internet is so valuable.
I suppose there’s no chance that the rabbinic supervisors will require VIN, YWN, and Matzav to pay for their content, is there?
Not likely!
you should see what hatzola does in florida
So if this Kol Koire comes out you’ll not obey it, but you’re busy with a few rabbis psak on molesters when its suits you, you pick and choose when to follow the rabbunim.
Mi sumchu l’ish ?? Let the rabbis run the websites, who are you to deal with these kind of sensitive issues ? The Torah wants a few yingatches like you to have a say in these issues and possibly ruin innocent lives ?
You lousy hypocrite. The rav who guides me on these matters opposes these bans and has never signed one. I am open with everyone who knows me about my use of the internet. But you, how can you even sit here and use the hypocrite when I bet you dont admit it openly and subscribe to the views of one of those rabbonim who already banned even haredi websites. Frum Follies is obviously not even a haredi website
Why should we try to influence the Rabbonim to not move forward with this. Why should we care. I thnk it will be quite entertaining to see who observes this nonsense and who doesn’t.
Let them bring it on. If they keep this up, their followers might even begin to question their sanity. This is so ridiculous that I still wonder if R’ Yerachmiel might have made this up.
I actually would encourage Rabbis Malkiel Kotler, Dovid Tzvi Shustal and the rest of the Lakewood bunch to go through with it, just so I can see what happens.
Al this will do is tame the Charedi sites. And it will silence Charedi dissent.
The issues still need to be discussed. No ban is going to shut down the voice of the people. The horse is out of the barn. There is not stopping it now. The Lakewood RYs are not my Poskim. Are they yours? No one is going to shut me down. And no one is going to silence those who want to express their views on my blog.
Egypt also tried to stop the internet & they had the power & the right buttons to press. I wonder why & did it help.
The ban is so redicules there is no way to enforce it without a cyber KGB,& how will they punish you?
Are you on their payroll?
Are they not on ours indirectly?
It is making a mockery of themselves & an indirect mockery of Torah.
JMHO
Harry Maryles
You were almost shut down not long ago by Matzav.
So saying no one is going to do that to you is a bit rich coming from you
This is why the mishna says aseh lechah rav.it doesn’t say self appointed or inherited rabisteh
Which Rabbi will be Colnel Qadafi and which Hosni Mubarak? The more they squeeze the stronger the revolt.
I was not ‘almost shutdown’. In reaction to a conversation with one of my children, I thought about shutting MYSELF down. And I would do it in a heartbeat to spare my children any pain. That whole episode was due to a viscious personal attack against me by a blogger with an obvious alias that was filled with half truths and lies. I have since tightened up my moderations policy and have tried to be more carefull in the way I criticize people.
The bottom line is that I DID NOT shut down.
Unless there are Poskim, RYs and other Chashuve Rabbanim signed onto this ‘ban’ that I respect and whose advice I take seriously, I will not adhere to a ban by RYs, Admorim, or Poskim that I have nothing to do with.
Who would post on the internet under a pseudonym? That’s horrendous!
Oh, wait…
What is the status of this supposed ban? Is it going to be issued? Or has the pre-publicity this site has generated changed the agenda?
Can these sites still insult YU Roshei Yeshiva? Ok, good…just making sure.
YEMACH SHMOM RAA–BONIM, go ahead give it out, and show your true colors…
I dont understand is not internet use banned how can you ban something that is banned Mordechai
They are into beating dead horses, and whipping living thinkers who defy them! What can they do? They are not willing to change their ways and they can’t afford to have their ways exposed and challenged. So they keep on trying to block reality? They should take a lesson from Gorbachev. His inside knowledge of the KGB convinced him that the system of repression was failing along with the Soviet economy. So he tried openess. It was too late! If the Kruschev reforms had taken and been expanded, Russia might still be a Soviet communist entity, albeit a reformed one. I suspect the charedi establishment knows that its control is crumbling and it does not trust the intelligence and committment of its own public In their heart of hearts they know that they are coercing their public rather than inspiring them. That is why inspiring is such an overused word in their lexicon. But using the term don’t make it so.
YL, this is ridiculous. Your blintzes analogy is right. I’m gonna send you something about this.
The end result will be the tilt of derech emtza’i to the left and a loss of credibility to organizations like Agudas Yisrael.