ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the attitudes of rabbis in Israel to media technology such as computers and the internet. It provides an overview of Israeli rabbis' perceptions of and negotiation with new media in order to illuminate how these religious community leaders, an influential social group generally not open to scholarly research, relates to new media and seeks to respond to the challenges of modernity they represent. From the appearance of newspapers in the 19th century, through the development of radio and television, and latterly video, computers, the internet and portable phones, Haredi rabbis have enacted such decrees against media, with different levels of success. The chapter shows that notwithstanding the inherent differences between Haredim, Modern Orthodox, Conservative and Reform groups response to Halacha itself, the variation in response between the Modern Orthodox and non-Orthodox groups on computer and internet-related matters, as reflected in the data presented here, are somewhat surprising.