The Ichud HaKehillos LeTohar HaMachane ( he, איחוד הקהילות לטוהר המחנה; "union of communities for the purity of the camp") is an

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

organization. It educates Jews about

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

-use habits, Internet addiction, and other problems that the organization believes can result from Internet usage.

Technology Awareness Group

The Ichud HaKehillos has founded a sister group called the Technology Awareness Group (TAG). It provides various services to its target market, including installing and configuring Web

filtering Filter, filtering or filters may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream * Filter (video), a software component tha ...

and monitoring software on computers, smartphones and other devices. TAG is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

staffed by volunteers, and there is no fee for any of its services. TAG has offices in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and elsewhere; TAG also provides certain services worldwide using

remote desktop software In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software- or operating system feature that allows a personal computer's desktop environment to be run remotely off of one system (usually a PC, but the concept applies equally to a server or a ...

. In total, TAG fields about 1000 phone calls from around the world every day. As of January 2020, TAG operates 40 offices in 16 countries and territories, staffed by over 400 volunteers. TAG operates 6 offices in the UK, as well as 3 offices in Israel; other similar Israeli organizations include OutNet and the היעוץ המקצועי שעל ידי ועידת הרבנים לביצור חומת הדת technology advice hotline.

Gatherings

To help promote awareness of the issues at hand, the Ichud HaKehillos has organized some gatherings. On September 27, 2005, a gathering was held in Lakewood, NJ, shortly before

Rosh Hashana Rosh HaShanah ( he, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, , literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , lit. "day of shouting/blasting") It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (, , " ...

. The leaders enacted a policy that children with Internet access are subject to being dismissed from any private Orthodox Jewish school in Lakewood.

Internet Asifa

''Internet Asifa'', or ''Kinus Klal Yisrael,'' was a rally organized by Ichud HaKehillos LeTohar HaMachane on May 20, 2012, to raise awareness about the negative consequences the internet and related technology was having in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious community, to discourage the usage of the internet, and to promote the use of internet filters when the internet was being accessed. The rally was held at

Citi Field Citi Field is a baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, United States. It opened in 2009 and is the home field of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The stadium was built as a replacement for the adjacent ...

and

Arthur Ashe Stadium Arthur Ashe Stadium is a tennis stadium at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. Part of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, it is the main stadium of the US Open tennis tournament and has a capacity of 23,771 ...

, New York City, and attended by over 60,000 people. Women were not allowed to attend the rally due to religious modesty concerns but were able to watch from closed circuit television at satellite locations. The media was also barred from entering due to stated "homeland security concerns," as per the rally's spokesman. The rally was widely discussed in Orthodox Jewish online blogs and forums. Much discussion centered around the irony of how the internet was utilized by event attendees and members of the Orthodox Jewish community to promote an event which explicitly discouraged usage of the internet. Further discussion centered around speculation that some of the organizations sponsoring and promoting the event had ties to internet filter companies and had financial incentives from the religious promotion of internet filters.

Technology Awareness Group

Gatherings

Internet Asifa

References

Further reading