Gerer Chassidim Gather for Asifas Chinuch, Bringing Awareness on New Technologies
by YS Gold
On Tuesday evening, parents and grandparents of the Gerer Chassidus gathered for an urgent meeting on the ongoing threat from technology—especially the unique and unprecedented threat posed by Artificial Intelligence.
"This is an issue of the greatest magnitude, and it is sitting right in our homes, with no possible filter," said Reb Yisroel Kompinsky, a mechanech within the Chassidus. We do so much to shelter our children, we make gedorim from technology, we try to inculcate them with yiras Shomayim to the best of our ability… and this threat stands to dismantle all of it, chas v'sholom."
He noted that, unlike other threats from technology, which we can stay away from, AI is now available on phones—and it all comes down to awareness,.
"We need to sit down and find the potential pitfalls in our homes," he said, "a phone which had not been properly protected, children who spend way too many hours on the phone, and can potentially call places they are not supposed to."
Rav Berl Tauber, a noted mechanech from Monsey, related harrowing firsthand accounts of episodes that related to AI and laid out the facts of the matter. "Hashem wants fire, that our children should see us on fire for avodas Hashem. That is the only antidote to this nisyaon. A child must be able to look up to his parents as a model for Yiddishkeit and kedusha."
Rav Hershel Rottenberg, Rov of Chasidei Ger in America, spoke about the halacha aspect of this technology. "It is no different than an unfiltered smartphone because it is indeed unfiltered access to the worst of the worst."
The sentiments were felt very strongly that, especially with all that is being done in the Chassidus to foster Torah and yiras Shomayim in children, the hour calls upon all of us to stand on guard for the kedusha of our generations.