Kosher cell phones

  • Heard on an NPR seg­ment yes­ter­day that there are spe­cial cell phones for the Ortho­dox.
    Ortho­dox Jews, that is. “The British Rab­binate is now offer­ing kosher cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to cell phones it sup­ports for mem­bers of the Ultra-Orthodox com­mu­nity.” They noticed that hav­ing access to the inter­net and tex­ting was a hin­drance to their children’s mod­esty and morality.

    “Any­thing that can be used to enhance Judaism is wel­comed,” said Rabbi Chanoch Kessel­man. “But like so many things there are uses and abuses.”

    Rabbi Chanoch Kessel­man rep­re­sents the British rab­binate, the main Jew­ish author­ity in Britain. Kessel­man said the Inter­net, for exam­ple, offers access to valu­able reli­gious texts and dis­cus­sions. But the rabbi said it can also lead to immod­esty. He said in the same way, cell phones can help peo­ple do busi­ness or help par­ents keep track of their chil­dren. But they also can lead chil­dren astray.

    So they’ve come up with “kosher” phones that are just phones — no inter­net, no tex­ting. And they note that the phones have become pop­u­lar with non-Jews as well.

    I like it. Why didn’t we think of that?


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    January 26th, 2012 | Grace | 1 Comment | Tags: ,

One Response and Counting...

  • pho­tini 01.26.2012

    I used to have one of those back in 1996 when I got my first cell phone. Then in 2005 I got a phone with a cam­era. And in 2010 I got one that has a cam­era and can text. But still no inter­net. I think there are still phones out there with no cam­era and tex­ting can cost extra, but I don’t know of one where tex­ting is impossible.

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