For some rabbis, the solution is simple: Religious Jews should boycott the Internet. In the large ultra-Orthodox community of Lakewood, New Jersey, a 2005 ruling forbade adults to go online without explicit rabbinical permission. But a lot has changed since then. Religious Jews aren't Amish -- they carry smartphones, Skype with relatives, and use the Internet to earn a living.

At Sunday's rally, a long list of rabbis weighed in on the problem. Ultra-Orthodox Judaism has no Pope, and while its authority may not be as decentralized as Wikipedia's, there are hundreds of separate clans and rabbis. Some of the speakers advocated for filtering software, while others insisted that Jews should avoid the Internet altogether, even for work. The speeches -- some in English and some in Yiddish -- carried on until nearly midnight, but the final verdict wasn't entirely clear.

None of this seems to bother Kobre. What matters, he says, is that his community has opened up a massive discussion about these issues, contradictions and all. He responded promptly to an emailed interview request and spoke to me from his cell phone as he drove to his office in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Have you seen our recent Atlantic cover story "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?"



Yes, I've seen it, though I must admit to not buying a hard copy. It's a great magazine, but I look at it online.

That's surprising. Most of the articles about Sunday's event described it as a rally against the Internet.

The motto of the event, which was approved by the top rabbinic leadership, was, "Using technology in accordance with Jewish values." But there's no question that some of the speeches conveyed a more absolutist view --- recommendations not to have Internet at all in the home, or only to the extent absolutely necessary for business. Our community is often viewed as a monolith, but we're a diverse group of 300,000 to 500,000.



What there is no difference of opinion about is our belief that technology poses a major challenge to us as human beings. On this, our position dovetails amazingly with broader human values. In fact, secular people are adopting practices you'd think had been suggested by religious extremists -- for instance, observing an Internet Sabbath each week. And we didn't invent the idea of Internet filters.

How much of an issue is pornography in the ultra-Orthodox community?

It's a huge issue. It's less of an issue in our community than in society at large. But ever since the Internet came about, there's been more of an onslaught. All of these problems existed before -- pornography, gambling, adultery. But technology is a portal through which these things enter our homes.

An Orthodox man isn't even allowed to be alone with a woman who isn't his wife. Does that make online pornography even more tempting in some ways?