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Brooklyn: Bais Yaakov Teachers Commit to Kosher Phones Only


ywbb.jpgHaGaon HaRav Yosef Rosenblum last week took part in a kinos of Bais Yaakov Boro Park teachers. They delved into the issue of the dangers of regular cellular telephone technology as opposed to the ‘kosher’ cell phones, which prohibit access to internet connectivity and the sending or receiving of SMS text messages.

At the conclusion, the teachers received a page, which they were expected to sign, committing not to bring any non-kosher cellular telephone into a Beis Yaakov facility. They also committed not to use a non-kosher phone for anything to do with students, even outside the school campus, the weekly Belz-affiliated BaKehilla newspaper reports.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)



11 Responses

  1. Cell phone halacha etiquette and compliance come from the home, not from school rules. My wife and daughter have a regular cell phones with both internet and texting blocked by ATT. Only I can unblock it. Once a week I go into the ATT website and check all my daughter’s phone calls. I know her friends numbers. If I see a number I don’t know, I ask her. She knows of my constant surveillance. I also check on the internet and texting blocking to ensure that it’s still on.

  2. 1)Will those teachers that do not sign get fired?
    2)How do they plan on monitoring the teacher’s activities outside the school’s campus? Enforcers?
    3)Can teachers made unemployed for not signing the paper apply for the new enforcer job? Seems fair.

  3. #1: You are the exception and as a parent of three teenage girls I applaud you. Recently my wife was at a PTA when an un-tzniusdige mother remarked at how untzniusdig a teacher there was dressed. One brave woman asked her “what about you”. She answered ” I’m only her mother not her teacher”.

  4. its none of their business what the teacher does in her personal life. also, #1 u seem too paranoid you obviously did not raise them properly

  5. all telephones are internet applications – the internet itself is the interconnected telecommunication system – it should be noted that until about 100 years ago, rabbanim NEVER used telephones and perhaps that would solve most problems , and (as with alal internet-based communications) the lack of face to face contact facilitates a degree of rudeness, perfidy and loshon ho’ra that might not occur in person.

    SO BAN USE OF TELEPHONES – they hardware can never be kashered

  6. #4: What are you talking about with your comments to #1? Are you a parent? If so, do you really believe that it is possible to completely trust a kid never to do anything wrong? I don’t care how well a kid is raised – everyone his certain nisyonos that can come up, and it doesn’t matter who they/their parents are. I give #1 a lot of credit. It takes guts to say, “I understand that my daughter is a NORMAL TEENAGE GIRL and if we don’t watch her, bad things can happen.” No matter how she was raised.

    I hope that, if you have kids, you are not so naive to say, “Never MY shayfele!” You are doing them a disservice.

    Hatzlacha.

    -Gregaaron

  7. a) ARE we worried about the teachers or the students?
    b) Is it fair to enforce this on students (parents) OR teachers when money is tight for most people, and they can often get a cheaper family plan with a “non-kosher” phone service?
    c) With all due respect and credit to #1 (theprof1) for his exceptional diligence regarding his child’s phone, how can you know what she is doing on her friends’ phones?
    *BOTTOM LINE — it is impossible to guarantee what anyone is doing. We ALL have nisyonos and there are michsholim all around us! All we can do is teach our children AND OURSELVES what is right, create the seyagim that we can for our children AND OURSELVES, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, create enough joy, sweetness, pleasure, ta’anug, and even FUN, WITHIN our mitzvah observant life that neither we nor our kids will feel the need to go outside it.

  8. #1 that is the way to go.
    In our house, every other day, the complete internet history is checked (besides for the two filters and the computer being in our bedroom===which is locked).

  9. #9, if the door is locked, and has 2 filters, are you and your spouse checking on each other to see if you have managed to beat the filters and cheat on each other? Wow, that’s a home built on trust!

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