Haredim present: Web surfers' cemetery
Ads posted in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods include illustration of graveyard for Internet users. Tombstone inscriptions read: 'Here lies our mommy who surfed to death,' 'Dear father, we lost you on Facebook'
The ads included an illustration of a cemetery, in which each gravestone has the cause of death inscribed on it – the cause being, of course, Internet use.
For example, the inscription on one of the tombstone read, "Here lies our mommy, who surfed to death at work." Other gravestones bear the inscriptions: "An entire family deleted forever" and "Dear father, we lost you on Facebook."
At the same time, residents of Jerusalem's haredi neighborhoods expressed their aversion to the Internet in signs hung on their balconies.
The neighborhoods were flooded with signs reading, "Here the Divine Presence is not driven away; here there is no computer or any device receiving Internet or films." They also included the phone number of the "rabbis committee for communication affairs," established for halachic inquiries and ways to disconnect from the Internet.
As a service to the public, the committee set up an organization which provides disconnection services.
"Tens of thousands of people have disconnected in recent month," said a committee official, who estimated that many did it through private computer technicians.
The committee official explained that during the Days of Awe between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, there was a need to increase awareness to the dangers posed by the Internet and encourage the public to engage in repentance and spiritual strengthening.
