In a fully attended gathering which took place at the end of Nisan this year, with residents of Kiryat Herzog and a roster of the local rabbonim, eminent gedolei Yisrael dealt with the painful phenomenon of the destructive effects of technological advances, especially the Internet, which sadly, are a veritable road of no return.
The assembly took place in the auditorium of the Beis Chinuch Talmud Torah, thanks to the generous offer of its administrator, Rabbi Moshe Klein. It was climaxed by a declaration by the mara de'asra, HaRav Y. A. Schwartz, of a forthcoming directory named "Paltrin shel Melech" to include only families who have accepted upon themselves avoidance of Internet usage, and when necessary for family income they will only use a properly halachically blocked form of Internet access.
At the closing of that gathering, hundreds of signatures were registered from the chareidi public who declared their abstinence from illicit Internet usage altogether, even via sanctioned blockage. A tremendous Kiddush Hashem followed in the succeeding days, whereby dozens of men and women working in offices connected to open Internet informed their employers that they could not continue working until proper computer blockage was arranged. Many did, in fact, bring about such blockage in their offices at large or at least, on the computer which they used.
Now the directory has been produced.
