R Yitzchok Frankfurter The hatred of Jews towards their fellow Jews on the Internet is comparable to the hatred of the Holocaust

update: Commentary added

The following is an excerpt from an editorial in Ami Magazine  November 11, 2015 praising the Lubavitcher Rebbe and his shluchim and contrasting it to the evils of the Internet

Light Multiplied

 [...] The Rebbe's mission, motivated by love, to search out every Jew after the Holocaust has been contrasted to those darkest day's in our history, when every Jew was searched out in hatred. These days, it might also be compared tס the darkness and loathing that permeate the blogosphere, where people often devour their fellow Jews alive, and all standards of humanity and decency are suspended in order to score a cheap point. 

While lashon hara awareness has increased in the last few decades, largely through the influence of the writings of the Chofetz Chaim, scrupulosity in the observance of these laws has decreased dramatically with the rise of the Internet. In the virtual world, self discipline and impulse control are considered failings, and slandering a fellow Jew a virtue. 

How can we neutralize the darkness that dwells in our computers and defiles our smartphones? The answer is, once again, ahavas Yisrael. As the Alter Rebbe taught, the only way to overcome the yetzer hara's incitement to indulge in slander and defame a fellow Jew is through love. 

"Therefore, my beloved and dear ones, I beg again and again that each of you exert himself with all his heart and soul to firmly implant in his heart a love for his fellow. In the words of [Zechariah 8: 17]: 'Let none of you consider in your heart what is evil for his fellow.' Moreover, [such a consideration} should· never arise in one's heart [in the first place]; and if it does, one should push it away 'as smoke is driven away'-as if it were an actual idolatrous thought. For to speak evil [ of another] is as grave [a sin] as idolatry and incest and bloodshed (Arachin 15b). And if  this be so with speech, [then surely thinking evil about another is even worse], for all the wise of heart are aware of the greater impact [on the soul] of thought over speech" (Tanya, Part 4, Epistle 22). 

The Rebbe's everlasting message, not only for his shluchim but for all of klal Yisrael, is not to fight the darkness overtly, but to make negativity disappear by illuminating the world with rays of light and love. 

Anyone who has ever witnessed a shaliach in action can appreciate the depth and wisdom of this transformation approach. •

================== Commentary by Anonyomous===========

I remember R' Frankfurter's editorial from Ami Magazine's November 11, 2015 issue. I was astounded by his cheap rhetorical tricks; the ridiculous misuse of ‘foil’, something that makes another seem better by contrast, and the egregious use of a particular hyperbolized analogy that would be just cause for the mainstream American Jewish Thought Police, the Marvin Heirs, the Abe Foxmans, etc. to throw him to the dogs. I thought of sending a 'letter to the editor', but I figured that would have the same effect as writing to the White House complaining about the Secretary of State storing Top Secret emails on an unsecured server in her bathroom.

However, in retrospect, I now realize that the editorial was the MSOM's (Mainstream Orthodox Media) opening salvo to protect the Rabbinical Establishment regarding the 'get' fiasco'. TE's so called remarriage occurred on September 24th.  By means of the Blogosphere, the Holy War against this chillul Hashem began and picked up steam during October. Frankfurter’s attack on the Blogosphere was published November, 11. In a moment of desperation and rage, Frankfurter committed what amounts to a capital crime in the eyes of the American Jewish Thought Police; he compared the Blogosphere to the Holocaust. In 2003, Abe Foxman and his ADL went nuclear when PETA equated meat-eating with the Holocaust. Using precious yiddishe gelt, Foxman launched a National campaign against PETA; imagine his reaction to a frumer yid comparing something as trivial as the Blogosphere to the Holocaust! Could be that the Thought Police gave Frankfurter a pass as they are fighting the same enemy and seem to share the same goal, ‘get on demand’. Thus, besides escaping media excoriation, Frankfurter was spared from the penitential tour, a reeducation Holocaust experience at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles with Rabbi Marvin Heir. At a past fundraising dinner for ‘Tolerance’ Center, Heir honored the Dali Luma (sic), a Buddhist baal avoda zara who operates a center for Jewish youth adjacent to his ashram in India. This Luma, this destroyer of Jewish souls, is perhaps the worst mazik of the generation.

It is ironic that Frankfurter uses the Chabad in general and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt’l, in particular, as ‘foils’ in an attempt to highlight the Blogosphere’s evilness. He could not have picked more unsuited ‘foils’. The Rebbe, an engineer by trade, embraced technology, especially communications. In 1960, the New York radio station (WEVD) began broadcasting a weekly Tanya shiur. The Rebbe was the chief editor of the show. The Rebbe was immediately attacked, accused of contaminating the holy words of the Torah. He responded by restating a fundamental principle of Jewish faith: everything was created by G‑d to serve His purpose in creation. Man, who has free choice, might make negative use of a creation, but its intrinsic function remains the revelation of the divine wisdom and goodness.

In 1988, before the Internet was popularized, a Lubavitcher Chassid, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Kazen, began disseminating Chabad Chassidus on Fidonet, an online discussion network. The Rebbe encouraged him in his activities. Several years later, before establishing a Chabad presence on the Internet, Rabbi Kazen asked for the Rebbe’s permission. The Rebbe said to absolutely pursue it. The Internet is an integral part of Chabad. In way-off places, the Shluchim are able to educate their young children via virtual classrooms, and access materials to enhance their kiruv work. Thus, Frankfurter uses the most Internet-friendly and controversial group in Orthodox Judaism in an attempt to posel the Blogosphere in order to protect the Kaminetskys and the Agudah.