At the behest of gedolei Yisroel shlita heads of educational institutions issued impassioned warnings to students' parents against the negative influence — especially for young readers — of various weekly publications aimed at chareidi audiences.
Rabbonim and educators have reiterated warnings against the ongoing and worsening deterioration of the contents of these weeklies, which include publications printed on newsprint and others on glossy paper and which diverge sharply from the opinions of leading rabbonim. Recently these publications crossed more red lines in editions disseminated on Erev Succos.
The problematic contents included interviews, accompanied by photographs, of anti-religious figures, who were given a broad platform from which to voice their destructive views. In some cases these were presented as "exclusive meetings" between dubious personality figures and chareidi figures, and even in the form of coverage of visits to Torah institutions by leading figures who exert public pressure to draft yeshiva students.
The weeklies also highlighted and promoted efforts by secular officials to introduce drastic changes in the character of the chareidi community and the Torah world, and they called upon the chareidi public to engage in public discussion of fundamental, sensitive matters, such as the value of devoting one's life to Torah. One weekly issued a special section called "Chareidim 2010," which portrayed the option of entering the job market as a desirable ambition that should be placed at the center of the chareidi public discourse. The special section presented a wide range of possibilities of work for chareidim.
Following the recent editions of the various weeklies, HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv shlita said this writing is very serious and threatens to undermine fundamental principles of chareidi, and said that Yated Ne'eman must react to and protest the trend.
In a letter published this week in Yated Ne'eman, heads of educational institutions warned that based on their wealth of experience educating several generations of students, these weeklies can have a severe impact on value systems, even affecting the desire of readers exposed to their contents to build Torah homes. Introducing distorted hashkofoh ideas puts a chill on matters of kedushoh and distances bnei Torah families from the traditional mode of education handed down untainted form.
The letter also warns that these weeklies are presented with chareidi "clothing," while nonetheless conveying — both explicitly and less openly — messages that leave many readers, both teens and adults, with world views that have been irrevocably skewed.
"Recently they have taken their evil a step further," reads the letter, "by providing a respectable platform to those who lead the battles against kodshei Yisroel, and who made use of this platform obsequiously to convey their poison. They also lead the trend to weaken the Jewish people's most sacred walls, the botei medrash, by ennobling and praising the forces that drive members of the community to enter the job market, and glorify the working world over the halls of Torah and those who devote all their energies in the tents of Torah.
"Among them are writers who claim the mantle of rabbonim, but they try to chill the admiration of chachomim. They thrust out their hooves claiming they are kosher, while clearly this alternative is not even a lesser evil.
"These trends show us over and over again that these weeklies scheme to implant deeply flawed messages, thereby seeking to create a generation of `new chareidim,' Rachmono litzlan."
The letter closes with an impassioned call to parents of students. "Take pity on your children's souls, and do not allow this veiled deception, claiming the message is intended for the chareidi public, to deceive you and ensnare your souls in these matters, which are detached from the path of Torah and are liable choliloh to destroy efforts invested into teaching children to earnestly aspire to greatness in Torah and avodas Hashem, based on a pure hashkofoh and obeisance to gedolei haTorah."
The letter was signed by Rav Binyomin Kahana of Givat Shaul in Jerusalem and by 13 talmud Torah principals: Rav Moshe Halevi of Tashbar Bnei Brak, Rav Meir Munk of Toras Emes in Bnei Brak, Rav Avrohom Gombo of the Karlin talmud Torah in Bnei Brak, Rav Shimon Ziat of Shesilei Zeisim in Bnei Brak, Rav Shlomo Karelenstein of Yafik Tevunoh in Bnei Brak, Rav Eliyohu Friedlander of Toras Emes Darkei Yosher in Achuzat Brachfeld, Rav Tzvi Lanpasky of Toras Shimshon in Ofakim, Rav Aharon Freiman of Ohalei Sefer in Kiryat Sefer, Rav Dovid Yaakobson of Kehillos Yaakov in Elad, Rav Moshiael Maimon of Netai Reuven in Netivot, Rav Gavriel Yosef Berenbaum of Tashbar Harach in Rechasim, Rav Moshe Kletzkin of Zichru Toras Moshe in Jerusalem and Rav Eliezer Rosental of Menuchoh Ukedushoh in Beit Shemesh.
