ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the role Pashkevilim played in the ultra-Orthodox community leaders' campaign against mobile phones, how their uniqueness in comparison with other means of public communication served the community's special needs and the significance of the contact point between the old medium as it was used in the struggle against the new one. The battle to acculturate the kosher cellular phone was different from any other battle against a medium waged within the ultra-Orthodox community. The secular radio stations, television and the Israeli daily press were intuitively perceived by the whole community as constituting dangerous exposure to the values of Western society and as a threat to its cultural boundaries, which is why the battles against those media were completely successful. The newspapers that were published by the Haredi political parties were not the only platform-and perhaps not even the primary one-through which the ultra-Orthodox waged the battle to get rid of the mobile phone.