Yishmoreini – An Internet Accountability Program – Comes To Westgate & 15 Lakewood Shuls

YishmorEini – a Lakewood based program which monitors users’ Internet activity via a Rav’s review – has come to the Westgate community, YishmorEini confirmed to TLS. The community based program which is led by the Rav of each community, is a program where each member is assigned a unique number, and only the appointed Rav is aware of the identity of the person to which the number corresponds to. When a member installs the award winning Covenant Eyes software onto their computer, the program sends a biweekly report to the YishmorEini monitoring team for review.

“The monitoring team does not know whose reports they are reviewing, as the reports are labeled by number only”, Yishmoreini founders tells TLS. “If, and only if, there is a report that is problematic, will the report be forwarded to the Rav assigned to that specific number”. “This way, one is assured that when using the Internet responsibly, his activity remains completely private”. On the flip side, “he is also aware, that should he c”v uses the Internet inappropriately, his Rav will receive his report”.

Reb Yochanan Ben Zakkai told his talmidim “May the fear of heaven be upon you, like the fear of mortal man”. The trait of busha is in and part of the DNA of every yid. Indeed, one of the most powerful tools in combating the Yetzer Hora – the fear of man.

A mere 30 years ago, many a temptation for sin was thwarted by fear of being seen or discovered. One had to go out of his home in pursuit of his desires and hope that he won’t be noticed or recognized along the way. In 1993 with the creation of the “world wide web” it all changed. Now one can get whatever his heart desires right in the safety and privacy of his own home or office. The element of busha and “fear of man” has disappeared.

The concept of having an “Ayin Ro’eh” – a partner or guardian, has often been proposed as a tool to help battle the larger-than-life nisoyon of immorality online.

“No one would view inappropriate sites if their friend was looking over their shoulder”, YishmorEini says. “However, as the Internet gains more widespread use for everyday needs such as shopping and research, the idea of a stranger viewing such personal information is not favorable to many”. “Hence, YishmorEini has come up with a simple yet powerful way to keep the fear of man, but without the intrusion of privacy”.

To date over 35 Rabbanim and communities have partnered with YishmorEini to help their Kehilla use the Internet responsibly.

The following shuls in Lakewood have already implemented the YishmorEini program:

Harav Simcha Bunim Cohen – K’hal Ateres Yeshaye
Harav Shlomo Gissinger – K’hal Zichron Yaakov
Harav Nechemiah Gottlieb – Unaffiliated Members
Harav Yosef Greenfield – Chestnut
Harav Eli Herzka – Me’or Chaim
Harav Shlomo Kadosh – Westgate (New!!!)
Harav Moshe Chaim Kahan – Bais Shalom V’Rayus
Harav Avrohom Kammer – Central Court Shul (Bais Medrash Nachlas Yaakov)
Harav Shloime Lowy – Presidential Estates Se’fard
Harav Avrohom Miller- Brookhill Estates Ashkenaz (Bais Medrash Kol Yehuda)
Harav Menachem Mintz – Coventry Shul (Mishkoltz)
Harav Noach Witty – Raintree (Coming soon!)
Harav Moshe Shimon Wosner – Chateau Park Se’fard
Harav Yosef Zimbal – Westgate (New!!!)
Harav Aaron Zuckerman – K’hal Zichron Pinchas

To learn more about how YishmorEini can help you or your community email
[email protected] or visit http://www.yishmoreini.com/. TLS.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. Beautiful Idea.

    I used to have my wife get my report at work. Since she stopped working I dont have who to sent a report to.. This is great. Kol hakvod to all that are involved.

    I can personally say for me it definitely is a must.

  2. Finally!!! The Rabbanim have long been preaching “No Internet” “Throw it away”, but for those that need the net, and use it at work, all that preaching was for naught. I’m glad to see the rabbanim are starting to teach a new path – RESPONSIBLE INTERNET. Preach solutions!!! Tell us how to be a good yid even though we have to work with this shmutz every day. Kudos YishmorEini – keep up the good work!

  3. how do we deal with the fact that everyone and their children have cell phones which can all easily set up or be upgraded for almost nothing to access the internet? Cell phones have the added problem that they can be viewed anywhere in complete privacy (bathroom, bedroom, car etc).

    As long as we continue to openly use cell phones, we are all (including our children) completely exposed to unlimited private internet access plus texting and private phone calls to anyone regardless how dangerous and inappropriate the relationships may be.

    Is it really so vital to our existence that every man, woman and child in our community carry a cell phone? You can set up Yishmoreini on your pc but it’s a false security for exposure to internet nisyoinus and inappropriate relationships as long as we have cell phones everywhere.

  4. Whatever your faith is, you know what is right or wrong. How weak are you to ask someone else to monitor you? Talk about the “nanny state”.

  5. Does yishmoreni also offer a way to see if a person puts on tefillin everyday? How bout if I miss zman krias shma. Does my bed shake if I forget negel vasser? Perhaps we should have a system that a bell rings if I cheat in buiss.

  6. Why don’t you ask why Chazal made an issur yichud with Arayos? You cannot be in a room alone with a forbidden woman. You need TWO OTHER PEOPLE in the room to safeguard you.

    Being alone in a room with the WWW is the same thing. So said Rav Matisyahu Solomon Shlit”a.

  7. To Ms. Kane; Weakness as I see it, is not knowing your weakness. Recognizing your weakness and fortifying it with all means at your disposal is to me the ultimate strength.
    Show me the man who claims to have never faltered to his weakness, and I’ll show you a liar.

  8. To Ms. Candy Kane,

    You see, that’s precisely your problem as well as the problem of most of the world. Most people are affiliated in some way with a religion yet most just look at it as a burden. Church going is just one big joke by many.

    We as Orthodox Jews take our religion very seriously. It is not a matter of being “weak”, it is simply SAFEUARDING ourselves. And FYI, noone is strong enough when faced with the temptations of the internet. Our great sages alreay said some 2000 years ago that when it comes to these temptations, noone is immune. We have countless laws that are simply safeguards established by our sages 2000 years ago, in this area as well as other areas of Jewish law.

  9. CE has been working on an Android and iPhone version for many months and has an Alpha (first publicly released) trial available. It’s far from bulletproof and not as functional as the PC app but they expect to have it worked out soon. The original target release date was for the end of September 2011. We’ll just have to hang in there ’til they work out a complete solution on those platforms.

  10. It’s so sad when you can not trust yourself and are forced to use computer software. why is this even needed since g-d already knows if you mis use Internet .

  11. very noble intention but doesnt come close to solving the problem also its quite naive to believe that only the rabbanim (who presumeably are not familiar with using computers and will need help from others to manage the client id files) will have access to the names of people

  12. To 2MoreCents

    CE is working on a smartphone version but in the meantime you can install Jnet Mobile which is an excellent filter for smartphones. it allows u to surf resposibly but very well protected. their # is 7186255638. it cost only a few dollars a month

  13. The Yodeia Yetzer says “Borosi yetzer horah, borosi torah tavlin” everything els is merely a bandaid.
    If we would have a renewed drive that every bal habos is working every spare minute to know shas and poskim internet will not be a concern at all.

  14. Here is a thought For all the preachers here preaching to learn mussar and torah and all will be well. The torah says burusi yetzer…burusi torah tavlin, yet the torah still has an issur yichud. The issur applies to anyone even if he learns torah all day.the issur yichud is actually IN THE TORAH. So it would seem to me that the issur yichud should work together with learning torah as a tavlin. But apparently the torah felt that the tavlin isn’t enough when facing a yichud situation

  15. your kasheh of why the issur of yichud is necessary might be a good kashe but still, the only real defense is studying torah. It is difficult to use a `force` solution because guys are very resorcefull and if there is a will they will find a way. Torah will break the will!

  16. Actually CE is EXTREMELY difficult to get around. Someone who’s a computer tech can probably get around it but I think it’s probably the strongest system out there for the ordinary individual.
    To all the “know it all’s” preaching about torah,mussar…..why is it that for many years the Gedolim have called for precisely such things? The gedolim have called for filters,accountability software…but you all know better!

  17. To all those making light of this – you are the ones with the problems. A yarei shamayim will have filters and covenant eyes.

    As for the internet on the phone, it is so easily disabled through your provider. you can still get email though for business and if you need to access the web, wait until you get to a pc.

  18. Does covenant eyes track it by user or just by location.
    If husband, wife and teenage children all use the internet, how can they know who accessed the inappropriate sites?

Comments are closed.