Off the Record?
Yaelle Frohlich
Issue date: 11/25/09 Section: Thoughts of Student Leaders
On the opposite side of the good/evil spectrum are Hamas and Hizbullah, with what Rashi described as "labyrinths of communications" endeavors. What makes Hamas's media system more consolidated than Israel's is that one person (or media center) is in charge of each area. For example, Ramallah is under one center's sole jurisdiction, Bethlehem under another's. "Whereas in Israel," said Rashi, "everyone wants in on stories."
Only recently, stated Rashi, has Israel realized that it must catch up in terms of its international media campaign. The media war has become so crucial that high-ranking Israeli military leaders who are Orthodox are now halakhically (according to Jewish law) permitted to grant media interviews on Shabbat (at least to non-Jewish reporters). Ten years ago, the rabbis would have banned such practice, said Rashi, but nowadays Rabbi Elyashiv's son-in-law acknowledges that media plays a crucial role in psychological warfare.
But media studies are becoming-and rightly so-an important part of education within Israel's Orthodox community. Rashi has developed a media program for dati leumi (religious nationalist) grade schools, and is in the process of developing one for regular state schools.
However, Rashi noted that many leaders of dati leumi schools remain wary of the visual technological arts-film production. This is a result, in part, of a Maale Film School production on the controversial (and, so-believed, discussion-inappropriate) issue of rape in the religious community. Jerusalem-based Maale, the world's only religious Jewish film school, trains religious students for entering the world of media. Documentaries and fiction films created by its students span a diverse array of religiously or socially relevant subjects, from wedding nights and the emotional ramifications of niddah (restrictions on sexual relations with a menstruating woman) to aging and mental illness in Orthodox families.
Heads of grade schools may think that shutting out select aspects of technological education will shelter children from the big bad world of unpleasant information. However, I cannot thing of a less effective solution to the indignity of suffering in shame and the stagnation of the religious-secular divide. An idea that has taken hold in some parts of the religious community in Israel and the Diaspora-and certainly in The Observer and other YU student publications-is that no subject cannot be tackled in a dignified-and, hence, modest-way. And in a world where anything not taught in class or at home can be accessed freely on the Internet, it is arguably ludicrous and dangerous to deem any topic taboo.
Only recently, stated Rashi, has Israel realized that it must catch up in terms of its international media campaign. The media war has become so crucial that high-ranking Israeli military leaders who are Orthodox are now halakhically (according to Jewish law) permitted to grant media interviews on Shabbat (at least to non-Jewish reporters). Ten years ago, the rabbis would have banned such practice, said Rashi, but nowadays Rabbi Elyashiv's son-in-law acknowledges that media plays a crucial role in psychological warfare.
But media studies are becoming-and rightly so-an important part of education within Israel's Orthodox community. Rashi has developed a media program for dati leumi (religious nationalist) grade schools, and is in the process of developing one for regular state schools.
However, Rashi noted that many leaders of dati leumi schools remain wary of the visual technological arts-film production. This is a result, in part, of a Maale Film School production on the controversial (and, so-believed, discussion-inappropriate) issue of rape in the religious community. Jerusalem-based Maale, the world's only religious Jewish film school, trains religious students for entering the world of media. Documentaries and fiction films created by its students span a diverse array of religiously or socially relevant subjects, from wedding nights and the emotional ramifications of niddah (restrictions on sexual relations with a menstruating woman) to aging and mental illness in Orthodox families.
Heads of grade schools may think that shutting out select aspects of technological education will shelter children from the big bad world of unpleasant information. However, I cannot thing of a less effective solution to the indignity of suffering in shame and the stagnation of the religious-secular divide. An idea that has taken hold in some parts of the religious community in Israel and the Diaspora-and certainly in The Observer and other YU student publications-is that no subject cannot be tackled in a dignified-and, hence, modest-way. And in a world where anything not taught in class or at home can be accessed freely on the Internet, it is arguably ludicrous and dangerous to deem any topic taboo.
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