IDF Gets Text Savvy for Emergency Situations
Image by IStockPhoto
Things not gr8. Go 2 shelters. Yes, it’s the Middle East SMS-style. The Israel Defense Forces has just started testing a new text message process for communicating emergency instructions to civilians. Citizens across Southern Israel have been receiving trial texts.
It’s a big step forward in emergency preparedness — especially given that Israelis are so cell phone crazy that there are more cell phones in use than there are citizens. But what about those Israelis who shun text messages as potentially immoral? That’s right — large parts of the Haredi public have so-called kosher phones, which have had text message functionality turned off. The main reason is that rabbis fear that texting is a perfect medium for flirting, and they are anti-flirting.
The Orthodox media is now asking what will happen to the Haredi public in terms of emergency readiness. Will it now be asked to choose between flirt-proof phones and safety?
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
