There is a website known as Frumteens that has set itself up to be the answer to all questions about Judaism. It is – as the name suggest – directed at teenagers.
I consider it a dangerous website. Not because of the right wing Hashkafos that they promote, but by the way in which those Hashkafos are promoted. It is done in question and answer format. And the answers given by a person or persons known as the moderator tend to be arrogant about the exclusivity of their own approach to the point of disparagement of any other Hashkafa and those who follow them.
In my view this is a Chilul HaShem. And yet Frumteens clearly influences the thinking of all those who innocently come to their site with serious questions about Judaism.
I don’t mind, and even support their right to promote their Hashkafos as the correct ones. I do that here with my own. But not to the exclusion of all others nor in the disgusting, arrogant, and insulting way in which Frumteens does it. Their treatment of Jews whose Hashkafos are different than theirs is completely unacceptable.
I therefore feel it my duty to inform anyone who might read Frumteens about the truly terrible way in which they do things. That said, I am not I am not in the business of boycotting anyone else’s blog. But I am in the business of making sure that people are prepared and realize that -what is really going on there is not the only about the truth as they see it – but about their disgusting attitudes towards others. Furthermore they write in a manner that influences their readers to think that it is a Torah obligation to do so!
I have been asked to not allow comments from an individual who bombards the comments section with multiple links and quotes from Frumteens. Much as I would like to do that and make Frumteens off limits here - I can’t. I don’t believe in censorship of other points of view – even if expressed arrogantly. But I will insist on guidelines to severely limit how it is done.
With an occasional exception (at my discretion) I will no longer tolerate long copy and pastes from that website or any other website that operates in a similar fashion – no matter what their Hashkafa is. Nor will I allow one commenter to constantly flood the comments section with multiple links to the same website, especially when it is done across several different comments.
Generally I would ask that anyone that wants to express a point of view should use their own words to do so and not simply copy and paste long posts from elsewhere. However if they want to link to a source to backup their views that is perfectly acceptable. But constant and multiple links to an arrogant website that is anathema to the pleasant ways of the Torah will no longer be tolerated.
