JERUSALEM -- The Internet ban issued by leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis last week has not prompted a great outcry within Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, where television was outlawed decades ago.
"There needed to be a ban," says Deborah Spier, the mother of nine children aged between 2 months and 15 years who stopped to read the announcement of the ruling posted up around Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood. "Children use the computer at 2 a.m. and you have no idea what they are doing. You can't control it."
While she has a computer (but no television) at home, Spier's family is not and has never been connected to the Internet. Her children don't mind. "I have a teenage son who enjoys computers and has a lot of games, but the children themselves felt that it was taking over," she said. "You can say that you are denying children, but they have other ways of finding information. There are libraries."
The ruling, signed by 30 rabbis from different ultra-Orthodox communities, expressly forbids Internet connections at home and states, in fact, that "the computer should not be used for entertainment at all." However, those "whose livelihood depends on it" are allowed access to the Internet in the workplace, with "the responsibility not to let others use it."
Is its aim simply to shield children from unsuitable material? "I don't think it is only for children," says Spier, but blushes rather than mention who else might be in need of "protection" and from what sort of online temptation.
Chaim Mor, who runs the Torah Scholar Software store on a cobbled Mea Shearim shopping street, agrees that it is not just children who are perceived to be at risk. "Children range in age up to 120," he says.
He does not believe this ruling is controversial. According to him, many ultra-Orthodox homes have PCs, but few have Internet connections. "The people that have the Internet have it for work-related reasons," he said. "A lot of people are involved in the computer field or people want access to Jewish and Torah sites."
Torah Scholar Software itself sells some of its merchandise online through Jewish Software, just one of thousands of Jewish sites. Others are the Shema Yisrael Torah Network and Jewish Chat. These sites demonstrate that the Internet's value for disseminating information is not lost on the Jewish community. Aish HaTorah, for example -- an Orthodox organization with the stated purpose of "outreach" to non-observant Jews -- has a Web site filled with all types of religious content, from the Jewish take on Y2K to online religious study courses, and even an "Ask the Rabbi" feature.
"I definitely understand the concerns that the religious world is feeling," says Aish HaTorah's director of development, Rabbi Ephraim Shore. "The potential for damage, especially for young people, is huge. And this is not confined to the religious world. The No. 1 use of the Web today is pornography. Do most parents want to make this available to their children?"
"However," he continued, "at the same time, the upside potential for learning and education is probably equally as huge. While I understand where the [orthodox] rabbis are coming from, I believe that there are ways to moderate and control Internet use using different programs available."
One way to do this may be through ISPs such as Koshernet, which labels itself a "safe and kosher link to the Information Superhighway."
Koshernet only allows subscribers to access sites that have already been passed by their site-checkers. Currently, Koshernet is only available in the US and Canada, but it is expanding to the United Kingdom and France. It expects to be available in other European countries and Israel by the end of 2000.
"The Koshernet was established to give a solution for anyone who needs to use the Internet for work and business, but doesn’t want to be exposed to offensive material," said president Jacob Gubits. "Since our establishment 3 years ago, we have the full support of the rabbinical authorities of different communities."
Regardless of whether Koshernet takes off, Aish HaTorah is expanding its Web presence and hopes for one million visitors a month when the new site ("the Amazon.com of the Jewish World," boasts Shore) is launched in a few weeks.
"I think personally that to ignore the Internet is to put blinders up. It is going to be there anyway," he says. "I think that the opportunity for Jewish education on the Web may be the biggest opportunity for the Jewish people in years -- maybe ever. The potential for outreach is endless. We have never had that opportunity before."
