LAKEWOOD (VINnews) — A letter has been issued by Lakewood’s leading Mechanchim and Menahelim, opposing a new online video device and platform, which has branded itself a viable option for frum families who are looking for kosher content.
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The chinuch leaders, who represent a range of yeshivas, discourage people from using the “24Six” streaming platform and media playing devices, and say that without Rabbinic guidance “we are opening up an anarchist approach” toward what is acceptable. The letter was signed by the BMG Roshei Yeshiva as well.
24Six allows listeners to hear only pre-approved music and content from Jewish singers and entertainers. Its website says, “Have your values. And your music too. 24Six is the only vetted media streaming platform for Jewish families worldwide – with features that give you control.”
The letter, which does not call for an outright ban, points to several concerns, including “exposure to music and videos with content that often runs contrary to the values and ruach with which we bring up our children.”
It adds that the platform is “detrimental to healthy spiritual and emotional growth, as by nature it is a device that promotes constant distractions and an overdose of entertainment.”
The sharply-worded text says that a device which can download from the internet should “never be considered safe in the hands of a child” and that without the guidance of Daas Torah “we are opening up an anarchist approach towards what is or isn’t acceptable in KlalYisroel.”
The text notes that “there is no written Daas Torah backing” the assertion that the platform is a “completely kosher entertainment option.”
As reported by Lakewood Alerts, several days prior to the letter by Rabbanim being issued, TAG, the kosher technology group, released a statement calling 24Six “a step in the wrong direction.”
One excerpt from the statement says: “As in many areas, what may be beneficial for one person or community may be disastrous for the next. Needless to say, the people who decide which accommodations or compromises are necessary to help yidden in overcoming their challenges should be our Gedolim and Manhigim. Not well-meaning frum entrepreneurs! The latest breach in our community courtesy of well-meaning frum entrepreneurs is the 24Six media device.”
“Of course, for those who have access or would allow their children access to iTunes or Spotify via a smartphone this app may be beneficial. Although even for them, proper guidance by Rabbonim and Mechanchim would have allowed for much safer options.”
“But for the rest of us the app, the device and the message they send are a very dangerous step in the wrong direction…”
Darn now I’ll have to renew my Spotify subscription.
To those of you who defend the rabbonim on this. The one thing that this will guarantee is more OTD kids. In Lakewood, anything that can provide any inkling of enjoyment is immediately banned. But remember, all of these rabbonim will have to answer for all the kids they chased away from yiddishkeit. As a side issue, why has there never been a ban on smoking? Its a lot more dangerous than jewish music. Thats ok? It is just as easy to ban smoking at all the kollelim. If you’re caught, out you go.
Ok…let the kids hang out in Westgate instead, brilliant!
Even though the Rabonim might mean well something still doesn’t sit right with this story there are currently over a dozen jewish online streaming of audio and video content with some them subscription based and some for free and never have there been any letter from Rabonim against any of them, and here it seems like someone made the effort to go around collecting all those signature, looks like someone has a personal vendetta maybe a competition as they say follow the money and you’ll get all your answers
Just to give a clearer picture:
1) Naki Radio was developed in conjunction with TAG.
2) 24Six was developed without any involvement from TAG.
3) They are both a business aiming to make a profit.
4) 24Six is direct competition to Naki Radio.
5) It is in TAGS best interest that Naki Radio succeeds.
6) It is in TAGS best interest that 24Six fails.
Need we say more?
Tifasta M’rubo Loi Tifasta. Hamavin yavin
Jewish singers are nichshal gantze klal yisroel by streaming their music on youtube. Yet the bad guys are 24/6. I don’t get it
Sounds better than YouTube, thanks for the advertisement
both can be right , for a regular lakewood family this would be a step down “ashrei lohem” , but for many other frum families where kids have access it may be a step up… what for one circle can be a question of tznius for another its pritzus …
So this device, clearly NOT for the Lakewood Yeshivishe oilam, is worth writing a strongly worded letter over, but crickets about the families who have children out of Yeshiva right now? ….okay. Glad to know that they have their priorities in order for chinuch.
Even though I have a smartphone with internet access (like I’m using right now to comment) I never bought into this 24/6 app. Why would I pay money to access Jewish music? I already have apps for Amazon prime music, Jewishmusic.fm, Jewishmusicstream, all free. Why would someone pay? I don’t chop.
Our tzidkus will destroy us
It all depends what they would be doing otherwise. The rabbonim need to understand this. Smoking pot, getting access to a completely unfiltered device without their parents’ consent, sexually abusing younger kids chas v’shalom. Give the kids a healthy outlet. Let them sing and dance to kosher music better than many other things.
If Lakewood rabbonim will not bend or accommodate even a little bit for certain types of families, then more young people will fall between the cracks. Lakewood is not what it was 15 or even 10 years ago.
This device MUST be completely unhackable though!!! So it can’t be reset or reloaded and become an unfiltered device.
Btw, also add a junior version of Torah Anytime also if something similar is not already included.
Kudos to these Torah leaders for raising these important issues, and in a measured, responsible manner to boot.
Even if this new platform is endorsed by music stars, we need to know that such entertainers are not the leaders of Torah Jewry. MBD, Avraham Fried, Shulem Lemmer, Mordechai Shapiro, etc…as much as they may do some very nice things at times, are not the גדולי הדור and עיני העדה, and their producers, managers, and other in the music industry don’t occupy such roles either.
This app might be ok for people who already have access to ” other” music apps. Not lechatchila to bring music and videos of all types into your home….
I once asked a respected chinuch expert and rov (like he writes columns from time to time and is involved in an organization) about a potential outlet for young people in Lakewood. He had once general concern but otherwise he said it was a great idea for any other place – be it out of town or even NY. He said try that in Lakewood and the zealots will slash your tires.
For some who had 24six, I did cancel my subscription for 2 reasons one. My teenager was listening to one of the podcast who is a comedian I don’t know his name and don’t want to know. He was making fun and mocking everything which on a several things was upsetting. As parents we spend so much money on the chinuch of our children and try so hard to be machinuch them to have respect for Rabbis and other yidden but when they hear things like this why should they!?
And two because what rabbonim said….
That being said I personally think it’s a great app for adults NOT children (mind you they don’t have that much for children (only for very young children they have) no rebbee hill, rabbi yitzy erps, rabbi Ferber and more).
It should not even be marketed that way. There are a lot of podcast on the app that speak about world events that you would not want them to hear or know about. I also don’t believe that there should be male and female entertainers both on the app, our boys don’t need to see that and neither do our girls let alone, idolize that. As a female I am very against having frum women sing on the Internet (you want, go to their private concert) I don’t believe that there is any such thing as a very good app that fits all specially for children. Call me old fashion all my children have mp3 players, we pick together (I want them to learn was is kosher and what is not) what goes on there and what they listen to because now at days so much music is not music befitting to listen to.
That being said if a adult who does have smart phones tablets ect I don’t see why this is a issue much better then all the other goyisha apps out there. But like I stated before if you do give it to a child you should supervise the child on app if you don’t want them knowing certain topics.
“detrimental to healthy spiritual and emotional growth, as by nature it is a device that promotes constant distractions and an overdose of entertainment.”
—- I wish there was some way to distract the sexual abusers in our communities from their sick ways or reduce drug use and overdose.
It all depends on what the person would be doing with their time otherwise!!!! Some perspective please.
I dont understand why a frum Torah minded family would feel that its appropriate to have a streaming device dependent on WiFi built in to their homes. At a certain point one has to have barriers. At a certain point one has to choose convenience or yiddishkeit. I dont think being intertwined with these devices at home is ideal. Need it at work? Ok fine with proper filtering. But why bring it all in to your house? Having a sound system in your home connected with an AUX/USB or via Bluetooth is not good enough any more? Why expose your kids to all this? Kids are sharper than we think they are and they gravitate to technology..
CALM DOWN EVERYONE!!
24six app says quite clearly under their FAQ “All approved, kosher content.”
TAG is doing the right thing sharing with all of us who care about filtering etc that it’s not all approved, if they vetted and determined so.
If you don’t care about filtering etc and don’t need approved, kosher apps, then the letter on this page shouldn’t bother you…
We could question the wisdom of the ruling without casting aspersions on the Rabbonim themselves.
So long as they don’t address actual problems but keep focusing on symptoms. משיב חכמים אחור…..
I sometimes wonder if the signatories are constantly on the same sheet of paper which is used for many different issues, and that the Rabbonim aren’t even notified. It’s like a fill in the blank with what the topic of the month is, followed by the details. It’s also typical for these heilige yidden to blow things out of proportion and greatly exaggerate a matzav to the Rabbonim just to get their signature.
I guess not as bad as ‘Peshuta Shel Mikra’, given the language.
TAG has a conflict of interest, also how many of these signatures are real and what were the ones who actually told, were they lied to, do the people who spoke to them have an agenda.
I wish the person who sexually abused my wife multiple times when she was between ages 3 to 6 would have had a distraction and he never harmed her.
When someone goes on utube, in his subconscious mind he knows he better be careful… putting a hechsher on an online platform that can bring on anyone and anything “Jewish” will make people watch certain things without a conscious mind. Herein lies the difference and that can be a greater michshol for all. It’s giving a hechsher for all things online without proper mashgichim. Why are we more careful putting things into our mouths than putting things into our minds??
There are many fine lines of what is appropriate and what is not. Even within the same family, what is good for 1 child may not be good for another, and 10 years later a different approach completely. Saying 24six is all bad – like they said 10-15 years ago that the internet is all bad, is missing the point. It definitely is not a best case synerio, but that is where the marketing comes into play & why TAG & Lakewood need to offer the opposite opinion. They are obviously trying to & market it by offering a “kosher” entertainment device, but really it is ‘frum’ leaning Jewish content – Kosher is really subjective. Without offering a filter of what can be seen & what can be hidden, timed device etc it is only ‘kosher’ by what you choose to watch or listen to.
That being said, there needs to be alternate outlets & kosher entertainment by whatever level you deem appropriate.
Kids out of school – either because they didnt get in, or they just dont turn up, is common place. Smoking pot is completely accepted all over Lakewood and no one blinks twice about it. Sexual abuse in Lakewood is rife – the rabbonim know about it, either can or wont do anything about it. Alcohol abuse & OTT kiddushim is all the rage and there are (some, not all) rabbonim who love it too. There are so many issues that are not being addressed – banning this is not going to help anything.
Instead of banning new things outright, how about trying to work with them and making it appropriate for your community, giving it a filter & approval. Banning things like this outright will not stop it, if anything just give it more steam & advertising.
Yeah, it’s been quiet lately.
WAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!what would i do all day if internet is baned?
Isn’t TAG the organization that had its Baltimore leader arrested for things slightly worse than having a device with WiFinon which jewish music can be heard?
What’s with this terrible thing that is going on in Lakewood, there is a particular BAIS DIN that is running over and destroying people and families!!!!
When will Lakewood wake up and take care of this big problem???
The name of the BAIS DIN will be coming out soon!!!
This must stop ASAP!!! And it will!!!!!!
The frum site cannot be worse than any non-jewish or none frum site on the net.
Why don’t those rabbis protest the 10 different sites that teach Daf Yomi?
I smell a rat!
It’s obvious to everyone that there can be no Daas Torah without having Daas in the first place.
The reality is that Rabbonim over the age of 40, don’t have the capacity to understand the situation, because they are from a different era.
Derech Eretz=Respect for nature/reality, is a prerequisite to Torah, because the Torah is meant to be implemented/practiced in the world we physically live in.
There’s an entire generation of 10s of thousands of our nation that are “connected” in one way or another. They look at themselves as “disappointments” to God and their parents. They don’t understand what they say when they daven. They don’t even hang out in shuls….
Our history goes back more than 70 years….we were decimated before, more than once.
Just like with a bakery, where the Rabonim give an Hashgocho and get a portion of the bakery’s profit. Now they also want a portion of the profits from the music industry.
They’re smart.
Does anyone take Ra-bonim seriously anymore?
Technology is solely created to weaken our attachment to HKBH so the Goyim can attack us. My Ruv said there is a direct link between Yidden using the Telegraph & the Pogroms in Russia.
The Rabbonim are right (as they always are) that we should avoid Technology at all costs.
There have been discussions among the Gedolim to ban cell phones but they don’t because they’re scared the Oilam won’t listen. Lo Aleinu!
Shame on these Rabbonim and Mechanchim! SInce when has this new concept of “Daas Torah” so metastisized into a papal Catholic dictum. With an eighty percent intermarriage-failure rate in America maybe we should get a more effective Rabbinate or this Rabbinate should find a more effective approach.
Is anyone trusting what TAG has to say these day? After all, the founder is in jail….
My Ruv suggested I don’t listen to these apps 3 days a week (not including Shabbos) then 4, 5, til I’m totally off it.
I know not everyone is at my level & that many of you will never reach my level of Kedusha but I’m sharing this as something you should strive for.
Ok, will go back to letting kids watch whatever they want.
Just put pictures and videos from these Roshei Yeshivas and Mechanchim and everything will be just fine!
Good ALL of these outlets are akum
Give the rabbonim a cut of the profits and they will do a complete 180.
I’m not even going to read the article BUT the heading is enough to throw the so called holier than though rabbis and wannabe mechanchim away…
Some people NOT in the chinuch field but maybe should be and NON Rabbi but maybe should be, have taken the time, effort and sleepless nights and restless days to form a kosher streaming platform for those who want to stream music and videos the kosher way rather than finding it amongst the non kosher music. And some brainless empty heads have decided it’s not good enough or not good at all! Serious???? These holier than thou crappie creeps would rather they watch unorthodox on Netflix or other non kosher stuff. How Stupid!!!! How much more are we being squeezed in the corner and suffocated to death.
Anyone who signed the kol korei against the 24/6 platform will be goirem that the non kosher platform will be back in use by those who were happy with the kosher version. I honestly don’t get the reason behind the ban. Shortly… Shortly people will stop listening to the kol koreis and the wannabe rabbonim and wannabe mechanchim… they’re just sic sic sic…
Our Rabbanim have Daas Torah & can see the future. Their issue is if Frum boys & girls listen to too much (even “Kosher”) music when growing up it will lead to mixed dancing when they’re older.