November 7, 2008
A programmer at chabad.org, the Lubavitch World Headquarters' flagship website, answers a curious user's question. Unlike other sects of Hasidic Jews, Lubavitchers embrace technology as a tool to spread their faith. (Jill Colvin)
When Rabbi Moshe Hecht receives questions from his congregation, he doesn’t refer them to renowned scholars or the quarter-million volumes at the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters library. Instead, he sends them to a website, chabad.org.
“Almost any time someone asks a question, scholastic faith questions or geographic Jewish questions, on law, ideas or philosophy, chabad.org is the way to go,” said Hecht, 23, who works at the Chabad Center of Forest Hills, Queens.
With nearly one million users a year, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s central Internet portal is one of the most popular Jewish sites on the Web. Chabad.org was founded in 1988, before the Internet as we know it even began to take shape. It now has 55 full-time programmers on its team. And it is just one of more than 700 websites in 50 countries operated by the movement.
Many Hasidic Jewish sects shun modern technology, choosing to live in traditional, insular communities. They have banned their members from using the Internet, watching television or listening to popular music because it distracts from religious study. This is especially true inside the home, which must be kept kosher—free from impurities.
But the Chabad-Lubavitchers, one of Hasidic Judaism’s largest movements, has embraced the Web. It uses the Internet to educate the public, connect with religious leaders abroad, and reach out to non-orthodox Jews who could join the movement. And many believe that technology has helped Chabad become the fastest-growing Jewish
outreach movement, with more than three centers a week opening somewhere in the world, according to Rabbi Beryl Epstein of the Chassidic Discovery Center.
Lubavitchers practice a unique interpretation of Jewish theology inspired by Kabalic mysticism. They follow the teachings of seven generations of highly respected charismatic spiritual leaders called “Rebbes.” The last Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994, taught his followers that technology is a tool provided by God that can—and should—be used to spread their faith.
“The Rebbe taught us that, instead of shunning it, instead of making it taboo, to really take advantage of it. The Internet especially,” explained Hecht. “The Rebbe revolutionized this.”
The impact of the revolution is striking to anyone who visits the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Bearded men wearing black suits and fedoras make cell phone calls in the synagogue as others sway back and forth, chanting in prayer. Outside, rabbis use BlackBerrys to send emails and new
acquaintances spell their names aloud so they can find each other on Facebook.
Their online presence is just as extensive. Chabad.org now has more than 9,000 pages of content in English, Hebrew, Dutch, French and Spanish. Russian and Portuguese are on the way. Much of the content is educational, with descriptions of Jewish customs, theology and history. An “Ask the Rabbi” feature answers questions about living a
Jewish life, while sections for women, parents and children offer advice and entertainment. There are recipes and even online cartoons, including the popular Itche Kadoozy Show, an animated comedy that tries to bring biblical lessons to life.
For many, chabad.org has become an online Jewish college, with thousands of digitized texts and 2,400 audio classes that can be streamed or downloaded on iPods.
“The gem of what we’re doing here is taking material that’s thousands of years old and presenting it in a way that’s accessible,” said Meir Simcha Kogan, project administrator at chabad.org.
“It’s allowing Jews access to information that once was held only in the realm of the scholarly,” said David Birk, an Australian rabbi studying at the Chabad Resource Center at Columbia University. “It’s a very beautiful thing.”
The lessons are especially popular among women.
While Chabad women attend religious schools, they are taught separately and devote less time to study. Using technology, they can listen to more advanced classes without having to sit face-to-face with men, and they can access teachings at home while tending to their families.
Simcha Pruss, 45, who grew up in Perth, Australia, said she uses chabad.org frequently to access Jewish texts online.
“There are some texts in the lady’s shul (another word for a synagogue) but not really the variety that’s in the men’s section,” said the speech pathology graduate student, wearing an ankle-length navy blue skirt and thick black sweater, buttoned to her neck. Under Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law, women must dress modestly in public, with their knees, elbows and collar bones covered.
Pruss said that having access to the website is especially convenient because, unlike men who can be found in their synagogue 24-hours a day, women scholars are not always available to consult.
The format also makes material accessible to Jews living miles away from a Chabad Center. Staff at chabad.org say they receive emails from all over the world. In mid-October, a Somali wrote to staffers seeking Jewish contacts. One man wrote from a ship stationed in Antarctica. The interest from Laos and Serbia was so great that centers were recently opened there.
Many rabbis have also embraced other websites, including the online social networking site Facebook, to reach out to potential members.
“I remember thinking this is like the greatest gift from heaven,” recalled Rabbi Yonah Blum, director of Chabad at Columbia, who currently has 2,870 friends on the network. “This is one of the greatest tools that ever came into a Chabad Rabbi’s resources.”
But members of the community also recognize the potential danger of engaging with the wider world. Maintaining purity is much easier in an isolated community, Birk explained. This is especially true for children, who may be exposed to harmful material, such as pornography or blasphemous religious ideas at an impressionable age, or feel pressure to conform to a less stringent lifestyle because of what they see around them.
“There are compromises,” he said. “If you’re going to bring a person up in a modern world and you’re going to be a minority, it can be harmful.”
Still he, like others, credits Chabad’s willingness to interact with the outside world and embrace technology for much of the movement’s success.
“This is what technology is for,” Blum said.
