For the record, I was the “PJS” whose comment at the Kavannah blog was quoted in The Jewish Week article (“For Many Orthodox Teens, ‘Half Shabbos’ Is A Way Of Life,” June 24).
Most of the subsequent flurry of comment all round the blogosphere (strange, because this issue is a year old) identified this as a typical incident demonstrating the failing of “Modern Orthodoxy.”
But my experience of coming across a bunch of texting teens in a Thornhill (a Toronto suburb) park on the first night of Rosh HaShanah did NOT involve “MO” teens at all — the group was definitely made up of yeshivish /Bais Yaakov types (black hats/suits, black velvet yarmulkes and “tznius” — modest dress). So the discussion (insofar as it related to my own experience) should be why haredi kids, from haredi homes, attending haredi schools, are texting on the first night of Rosh HaShanah…
Toronto
