Israel advances digital literacy project for ultra-Orthodox
Israel’s ministry of trade and industry estimates that many ultra-Orthodox are digitally illiterate, but much of the community avoids the internet by choice.
Israel’s Economy Ministry plans to invest 70 million shekels to promote digital literacy in the ultra-orthodox and Arab sectors, with the goal of connecting these populations to the internet.
The program is supposed to operate in more than 100 local authorities, ultra-orthodox and Arab, with the goal of providing basic internet training for some 100,000 residents at employment-formation centers.
The Economy Ministry feels that it is important for the ultra-Orthodox, to join the digital world in order to integrate in the work market. The ministry hopes that the new program will create more internet use within the ultra-Orthodox public within a year. The program is mostly aimed at younger people, but the ministry wants to reach older age groups as well.
But while the Economy Ministry believes that the ultra-Orthodox sector is disconnected from the internet, another government ministry, the Prime Minister's Office, discovered that the ultra-Orthodox public is actually rather well connected.
