Community Corner

How 'Kosher' Is New Jewish Social Networking Site? Local Rabbis Discuss

FaceGlat.com offers separated sex browsing for Orthodox Jews.

A new website sells itself as an alternative to Facebook for Jewish people who might feel the popular social networking site contains inappropriate content.

Dividing web browsing by sex to conform with Orthodox Jewish observance, FaceGlat.com was launched earlier in September by Yaakov Swisa, a 25-year-old Israeli interested in breaching the digital divide.

The site, as described by Worldcrunch.com, includes common Facebook features such as friending, posting photos and commenting, while infusing Orthodox traditions—sexes are separate, indecent photos are banned and coarse language is monitored.

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The name was formed by combining the term that describes a heightened level of Jewish dietary practicies ("glatt" kosher) with the iconic Facebook "Face," the website is offered in English and Hebrew. Only 2,000 users subscribe worldwide, but Swisa told Worldcrunch hundreds join weekly.

Rabbi Yonah Gross, who is based at  in Wynnewood in Lower Merion Township, recently asked his eighth-grade students about FaceGlat. Though they heard of it, few, if any, had accounts.

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"I understand what they're trying to do, but the Orthodox spectrum is so wide. Where do you draw the line—what's a good idea, what's a bad idea?" he asked. He said viewing accounts for his wife, aunt, granddaughter and other family members isn't problematic.

Rabbi Yitzchok Gurevitz of Chabad-Lubavitch of Northwest Philadelphia—which is in Mt. Airy and also serves Chestnut Hill, Roxborough, Manayunk and East Falls—views the site differently.

"To me, FaceGlat is a business endeavor. It's not a nonprofit. It's not (affiliated) with a rabbinical organization," he said. 

In general, Gurevitz understood the justification. "Look, some people (might be more comfortable) in a environment with less issues of sexual tension."

However, he said it's not for him.

"If they would call me to invest, I wouldn't invest. People who have problems with Facebook may have problems with FaceGlat," he said, saying that a tendency to gossip and general inquiries into other people's private affairs are endemic in social networking.

Either way, FaceGlat's future is still largely up in the air. It's hard to know what will happen to it, but it could, theoretically, affect change.

"If someone doesn't use the Internet, I'm curious to see how this will (impact them)," Gross said.


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