Tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews will participate in a huge rally to be held on Sunday evening, May 20, at Citi Field in Queens, New York, to combat the evils of the Internet and the damages caused by advanced electronic devices.
The NY Mets will be playing in Toronto on the same day.
The website JDN cites one of the event organizers who said: “This will be a mass rally never before seen in the history of Orthodox Jewry in the U.S. It will be a gathering of unity of all the Jews living in the U.S., a gathering to disseminate information and a prayer rally for the success of Klal-Israel’s war on the Technology which threatens the sanctity of the homes of Israel.”
The “Gdolei Israel” (leading sages) behind the conference have specifically ordered to schedule it for the eve of Rosh Chodesh Sivan, a day which is considered particularly fortuitous when it comes to children’s education, since the goal of their campaign is to save the generation from the ravages of advanced technology…
Okey dokey.
If they pray hard enough, they’ll break the internet.
Really? Will Mark Zuckerberg be there?
Jeeves,
The ultra-Orthodox don’t think the views of secular or non-Orthodox Jews are worth consideration. We’re still Jews (it’s actually almost impossible to escape it under Jewish law, if one is the child of a Jewish mother) and potentially redeemable in their eyes if we adopt Orthodox observance, but we don’t count otherwise. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that they don’t expect seculars to live by their rules when they achieve population concentration.
@anonj
My remark about Zuckerberg was facetious–though you could have no way of knowing that.
Since you’re at SR, I’m assuming what the Orthodox community thinks about your Jewishness is supremely irrelevant. Even though they’re prodigious baby-makers here and in Israel (hey, Douthat ought to be happy) I doubt Orthodox expectations about seculars will have any practical effect. Jerusalem’s Egged bus line is probably safe unless you’re a woman trying to rile up the Hasids on purpose. And sooner or later I think the non-Orthodox in Israel will say No to life-tenured Talmud “students” on the dole.