Israel's ultra-Orthodox entrepreneurs ignore internet taboos
The leadership of the ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel are against the internet, but more and more ultra-Orthodox businesses find ways to be part of the digital arena.
Last month, Avrimi Kliger and Mendi Nabul launched a new digital-ultra-Orthodox advertising agency called People. Until a few years ago, the big advertising budgets targeting ultra-Orthodox consumers went exclusively to print media. But nowadays, say experts, ultra-Orthodox digital advertising has reached parity with print. So how much are ultra-Orthodox really exposed to the digital world?
“As far as the ultra-Orthodox leadership is concerned, there’s no internet in the community," said Shimon Barsky, an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student who works in sales of smart but “kosher” cellphones. Communication Minister Yoaz Hendel's proposed discontinuation of those phones (with allegedly offensive content blocked), is frozen now following a lawsuit filed by the ultra-Orthodox members of Knesset. But, Barsky said, "those very same Knesset members who sat in the courtroom as plaintiffs were seen using their smartphones as they awaited the court’s decision.”
Barsky's target market is broad and in the mainstream of the ultra-Orthodox public. “I sell smart devices, and I’m not the only one. There’s a lot of demand,” he says.
“Officially, the digital world has no foothold in ultra-Orthodox public life. I don’t advertise the [smart] devices I sell in mainstream ultra-Orthodox newspapers, and ultra-Orthodox institutions won’t publicize WhatsApp numbers where you can reach them," he continued. "But in practice? Every other ultra-Orthodox person has a smartphone, and even if marketing doesn’t happen openly, sales take place at a huge scale.”
