The Kiruv Industry, the Internet and the Ultra-Orthodox in New York

• In Event: American Haredi Orthodoxy in Transition

Abstract

Over the past fifteen years among the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn there has been a growing moral panic over the Internet. In part, this is because there has also been a growing population of ultra-Orthodox Jews who privately question whether the Torah is the word of God yet decide to remain within their communities. For these “double lifers” as they are called, who anonymously critique their communities online, external signs have ceased being a reliable index of shared faith/belief (emune) and intention. Communal authority figures blame the Internet for double lifers, calling the current moment a “crisis of emune (faith/belief),” which has led toan increasing attention to interiority, with many describing faith as a material object that requires “strengthening” and protection from the images and knowledge of the Internet. This paper analyzes the growing concern with faith, interiority and its indices, through examination of two ultra-Orthodox organizations: The Emunah Foundation and Project Yes. These organizations cater to either those “at risk,” that is, those who are at risk for challenging Jewish tenets of belief. They also present preventative programs to young adults in the hopes of “building up faith.” Drawing on interviews, textual analysis of online materials, and participant observation at programs for those at risk, I examine the genres of discourse, language choices and programming the rabbis make, and the media through which all of these activities occur. I also explore the economy of faith, where expertise on matters of protecting faith becomes a source of income. In particular, I examine a tension between the economy of faith and communal critiques of the growing materialism that is part of the process of embourgeoisement. The new concern with interiority and the materiality of faith reveals a historical moment of contestation around the very nature of belief and morality that is creating alternative sources of authority and Judaism among the ultra-Orthodox today.

author

• Ayala Fader, Fordham University