Samsung, in association with Israeli company Askan, debuted a “kosher” smartphone for chareidi users.

Askan, which specializes in “kosher technologies,” programmed the phone with Internet filters that are designed to keep out objectionable content. In the chareidi community, Internet providers offer similar filters suited to their customers’ demands.

“We chose Asken as a partner because the company helps the chareidi society, which wants to make use of smart mobile devices, and gain access to our advanced instruments in complete conformity with their lifestyle,” said Guy Hibash, director of Samsung Israel’s enterprise division.

Their specialized operating system, built on Samsung’s Knox Customization software, will run on a variety of Samsung phones, including those in the Galaxy S6 and S7 S8 series, and the A5 and J1 models.

The new Samsung device has been approved by Rabbi Tzvi Braverman, a respected dayan from Betar Illit, who has also developed and approved a home and business Internet filter for the chareidi community.

However, the new smartphone has not been endorsed by the beis din of HaGaon Rabbi Nissim Karelitz Shlita, which is the most senior and respected body providing oversight for smartphone usage in the litvish chareidi community, as well as for some chassidic groups.

“There have been two approaches to the issue of smartphones among the leading chareidi rabbonim,” said Yisroel Cohen, a reporter for the Kikar Shabbos news site.

“The first approach has been to prohibit all smartphones, including even the filtered devices, arguing that if you allow, for instance, chareidi businessmen the use of such phones you will open the door eventually to yeshiva students, and thousands of people will end up using them.”

The other perspective, said Cohen, “has been to authorize the use of limited smartphones for those who need them because the situation right now is that chareidi businessmen and others are using iPhones and other devices without any protection at all.

“More and more rabbis understand now that there is a need to allow for the use of a protected smartphone, and as a result of that we’re seeing, many more people on the street are using such devices.”

Still, news of a kosher smartphone may be particularly welcome among those in the community who are trying to enter the workforce, and land high-paying jobs in hi-tech. Cohen explained that some chareidim who have taken programing courses find themselves limited when they cannot take the mobile phones that they are working on home with them.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)