NJ rabbis ban Internet use

Rabbis tell parents of yeshiva students in Lakewood, NJ that they can no longer have Internet access at home.

While many, if not most, Orthodox Jews here eschewed the Internet -- and television, for that matter -- long before the edict, some with children in Lakewood's 43 yeshivas cut the cord or put a lock on the computer afterward.

Others have quietly defied the ban or, not so quietly, ridiculed it online in anonymous blogs. Community leaders say no one has been subject to the ban's ultimate penalty: expulsion from school for students whose parents have kept the Internet at home for nonbusiness reasons.

Most Orthodox Jews, interviewed recently almost nine months after the edict was issued, said they support the policy.

"It's a great idea. They should do it everywhere," said David Egert, an emergency medical technician.