ABSTRACT
As modernity and secularization swept from west to east across Europe in the nineteenth century, some Jewish religious leaders (especially in Eastern Europe) spoke out fiercely against the changes in an attempt to forestall an inevitable wave of assimilation. Members of the Orthodox community who were opposed to such social and religious changes came to be known as “Haredim,” literally “fearers” (of heaven) (Heilman and Friedman 1991). This opposition included a fear or concern about media. In recent years, a number of studies have been conducted on the way the
Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community generally views modernization and digitalization (Zarfati and Blais 2002; Friedman 2006) and particularly how it relates to the Internet (Livio and Weinblatt 2007; Horowitz 2000; Rovanna 2007). The unique social structure of ultra-Orthodox society has also received attention (Friedman 1991; Grylak 2002; Caplan 2007), as has the ultra-Orthodox media and its status within that society (Caplan 2001; Friedman, I 2005; Rashi 2011). This case study seeks to explore these complex issues through surveys of the factors behind a three-year ultra-Orthodox campaign (from late 2004 to the beginning of 2007) against third-generation (3G) cell phones. Ultra-Orthodox community media played an important role in this public struggle, which forced Israeli cell phone companies to produce and market a “kosher” phone that would not have Internet or SMS capability and would block access to “indecent” phone numbers such as erotic and gambling services. The case of the kosher phone demonstrates that, by exploiting the print media, the religious leadership managed to partially block 3G cell phones and to reaffirm and enhance their status within the community.
