November 8, 2018 What’s a kosher phone?
A reader asked: What’s a kosher phone?
Answer — For my best attempt to answer this question, watch this video. Or read on!
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you assume that a kosher phone is something like the below. I’m sure there’s a product like that too.
But in contemporary Hasidic parlance, kosher phones are phones that have been restricted in some ways, so as to ensure that they don’t provide access to various apps and sites that are considered problematic. Some kosher phones might be modified smartphones, like the following: This smartphone has Waze, camera, calendar, weather, and the “Seal of Trust.” Although it is very restricted, with few apps and no browser, it is still a rather advanced phone.
But the kosher phone I have is one of the most restrictive phones. It is a flip phone. The original device is the LG VX5500, which was released in 2008. It comes with talk, text, camera and, I believe, a browser. The unmodified phone can be bought on Ebay for $20.
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Here is the kosher version. It’s listed on Venishmartem, a website for recommending internet solutions for Orthodox Jews, as follows:
Some of the features:
1. It has a symbol of kosher supervision.
2. The symbol sits on the camera eye, so the camera is disabled.
3. Where the messaging features should be, we have various shapes.
If you click on them, you are told they are disabled:
(here is the unedited version of the LG’s messaging feature)
4. Whatever features used to be at the first tab, they’re now named “colors,” and various color options are available. If you click blue, you have several shades of blue to choose from. Then you hit the dead end again.
Naturally, the resistance to texting and the internet spurned a whole industry in phone news and phone information. I remember as a child we used to call the hotline “800-tellme,” before that was discontinued and replaced by the web. Within the Hasidic community, a thriving industry of hotlines cropped up, and serve as ways to get instant information without having internet access. I am guessing that this is why we see so many people walking around with their phones on their ears. Most of them aren’t even talking. They are probably just doing the equivalent of the subway full of riders with their eyes glued to their screens, only here it is ears.
Related:
How the Hasidic community deals with the internet
A kids’ card collection: anti-smartphone edition
This smartphone war is directed especially at women
Abby Goldsmith
Posted at 23:54h, 20 MayYour blog posts are really interesting and insightful. I’m enjoying your site a lot. I think you think like I think.
Frieda Vizel
Posted at 19:09h, 21 MayAbby, I don’t know if you’ll see my comment, but I checked out your website and you seem to be doing the things I love most: illustration and writing. Are the illustrations on your site yours? I love them. I dream of waking up with such talent! Now I will have to check out your fiction!
Estelle weiner
Posted at 11:01h, 25 JuneWud like to order an advanced kosher phone
RESOURCES ON HASIDISM - Frieda Vizel
Posted at 18:01h, 07 August[…] On technology and kosher phones […]
Boruch
Posted at 11:24h, 15 OctoberGreat article on kosher phones! We just started selling Kosher phones on our website and you really covered the topic well.
michel fried
Posted at 18:15h, 05 JulyYes there is a lot of websites selling kosher phones, I found ezcellusa.com standing out very strong and I even buy there my kosher phone.
Laslzo Toth, KSC, POEE
Posted at 20:40h, 08 SeptemberThere’s no part of this exercise of prudery and anti-modernist religious fanaticism that isn’t creepy beyond belief.
Kosher phone
Posted at 17:17h, 16 JanuaryA kosher phone is really an important part of the Jewish life
Shannon Bradley
Posted at 05:31h, 30 MarchI live in Lakewood, NJ which has a very large Orthodox and Hasidic population. I see people all the time with those flip phones and often wondered why. You have answered my question beautifully. Thank you so much for educating me.