Can ultra-orthodox Jews live with the web?
22 May 2012 Last updated at 01:13 GMT
When New York City's web-phobic ultra-orthodox Jews wanted to discuss how to face the challenge posed to their community by the growth of the internet, they could hardly set up a Google Hangout or host a webinar.
With tens of thousands keen to take part, the community needed a big venue. On Sunday 40,000 men filled Citi Field, home to the New York Mets baseball team, to chart a way forward.
Amid concern over the dangers the internet poses to traditional morality, organisers said the discussion focused on how to protect children from pornography and violent sites. The proliferation of social media was also a key concern.
The event, sponsored by the ultra-orthodox Jewish group Ichud Hakehillos Letohar Hamachane, featured prayers and speeches from spiritual leaders. Tickets sold out quickly, and the organisers rented a nearby stadium to accommodate another 20,000 people. There were separate women's events in other venues.
Across the road demonstrators staged a protest, complaining that sensitive subjects - including child abuse allegations - were being ignored while the internet was identified as a source of problem and sin.
Despite a media ban the BBC received exclusive amateur video from inside the stadium, and spoke with attendees at both the protest and the rally.
Produced by Anna Bressanin. Camera by Ilya Shnitser.
Amateur video courtesy of Eli Gleiberman.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18155404]
After coming across this page on the BBC news website I couldn’t help thinking that those Jews in the New York Mets stadium would regard CODOH as an abuse site that needs to be silenced. It’s a damned shame that as the Internet becomes more populated the power of the traditional enemies of freedom seems to grow correspondingly. Twelve years ago no one would have batted an eyelid about RODOH’s content ― now that forum is lost to the world forever. Regardless of one’s opinion of RODOH I think most would agree that it should never have been censored by YUKU merely because they feared getting on the wrong side of the Jew.
What does the future hold for privately owned websites like CODOH in the near future? Will the Jew with the help of their Goy lackeys in the US government finally manage to silence freedom of speech on the Internet by 2025?
PS. I’m glad I don’t live in New York.