The articles below are suggested readings to broaden your understanding of the case. However, you are not required to read these texts or include them in your arguments.
1.Shaming in Judaism Past, Present, Future Journal of Religion and Society | Volume 19 (2017) |Tsuriel Rashi and Hananel Rosenberg
Abstract: It is sometimes thought that public shaming is a new phenomenon, only emerging with the advent of the internet and, in particular, with the rapid growth of social media. In this article, we survey the various modes of public shaming within the Jewish community in the Middle Ages and in modern times. We review whether and how the new practice of communications shaming on social media has been adopted by religious institutions as an extension of communal, traditional shaming, and discuss how rabbis relate to this today.
2. Shaming, Disagreement & Purposeful Difference Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas | Fall 2021 | Christine Hayes
This article offers a close reading of a conflict described in the Talmud between two 1st–2nd century sages, Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Joshua. In doing so, Hayes identifies practices and principles that support the flourishing of strong, diverse communities built upon difference.
3.Americans and ‘Cancel Culture’: Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment Pew Research | May 19, 2021
“To better understand how the U.S. public views the concept of cancel culture, Pew Research Center asked Americans in September 2020 to share – in their own words – what they think the term means and, more broadly, how they feel about the act of calling out others on social media. The survey finds a public deeply divided, including over the very meaning of the phrase.”
4. What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In? The New York Times| November 19, 2020 | Loretta J. Ross
Loretta J. Ross, a professor at Smith College, is challenging students to identify the characteristics and limits of call-out culture. The antidote to that outrage cycle, Professor Ross believes, is “calling in.”
5. Second Chances, Social Forgiveness, and the Internet The American Scholar | March 1, 2009 | Amitai Etzioni
Reflecting upon the changes ushered in by the digital age, Amitai Etzioni explores the difficulties of moving on from our wrongdoings in a world in which details of our misconduct are easily searchable online.
These developments disturb privacy advocates and anyone who is keen on ensuring that people have the opportunity for a new start. Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, says that Internet databases cause a “loss of ‘social forgiveness.’”
6. The Dark Psychology of Social Networks The Atlantic | December 2019 | Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell
Co-authored by a leading social psychologist and an expert in the ethics of technology, this article explores what happens when social media turns communication into a public performance.
7. Is Social Media Fueling a Women’s Rights Revolution in the Orthodox Jewish Community? Religion and Politics | March 30, 2021 | Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt
This article describes the newfound role of social media in campaigns to pressure recalcitrant husbands to free agunot.
“Social media works. Activism works. Pressure works,” Orthodox feminist activist Adina Miles-Sash posted earlier this month on Instagram when one agunah finally received her divorce, which many credited to social media pressure. Speaking to gett refusers, Miles-Sash wrote: “We will have you fired from your job. We will publicly humiliate you. We will find ways to have you arrested. And we will not rest until every prisoner is set free.
8. How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life The New York Times Magazine | February 12, 2015 | Jon Ronson
“I started to wonder about the recipients of our shamings, the real humans who were the virtual targets of these campaigns. So for the past two years, I’ve been interviewing individuals like Justine Sacco: everyday people pilloried brutally, most often for posting some poorly considered joke on social media. Whenever possible, I have met them in person, to truly grasp the emotional toll at the other end of our screens. The people I met were mostly unemployed, fired for their transgressions, and they seemed broken somehow — deeply confused and traumatized.”
9. Students are using Instagram to reveal racism on campus Vox | July 15, 2020 | Terry Nguyen
This article explores “Black At” Instagram accounts, like Black at Harvard Law, that provide space for students to anonymously share racist experiences and mobilize for systemic change.
“For many “Black At” moderators, the goal is not to create what’s akin to a file for their school’s human resources department. The specifics of a student’s story aren’t as important, they say, as bringing to light the trauma and toxicity that students of color face on campus. And while most students have received mainly positive responses from their campus and administrators, some have received pushback on the page from random trolls, community members, or teachers, particularly when it comes to outlining specific incidents.”
10. The Destructiveness of Call-Out Culture on Campus The Atlantic | May 8, 2017 | Conor Friedersdorf
“This self-electing group offered many more complaints and concerns about the social-media era than celebrations. And no negative aspect of the status quo preoccupied my undergraduate correspondents more than the stresses of call-out culture. They had no problem with objections to violence, or slurs, or other serious transgressions; but fretted that call-out culture now goes far beyond matters like that.”
1.Shaming in Judaism Past, Present, Future Journal of Religion and Society | Volume 19 (2017) |Tsuriel Rashi and Hananel Rosenberg
Abstract: It is sometimes thought that public shaming is a new phenomenon, only emerging with the advent of the internet and, in particular, with the rapid growth of social media. In this article, we survey the various modes of public shaming within the Jewish community in the Middle Ages and in modern times. We review whether and how the new practice of communications shaming on social media has been adopted by religious institutions as an extension of communal, traditional shaming, and discuss how rabbis relate to this today.
2. Shaming, Disagreement & Purposeful Difference Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas | Fall 2021 | Christine Hayes
This article offers a close reading of a conflict described in the Talmud between two 1st–2nd century sages, Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Joshua. In doing so, Hayes identifies practices and principles that support the flourishing of strong, diverse communities built upon difference.
3.Americans and ‘Cancel Culture’: Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment Pew Research | May 19, 2021
“To better understand how the U.S. public views the concept of cancel culture, Pew Research Center asked Americans in September 2020 to share – in their own words – what they think the term means and, more broadly, how they feel about the act of calling out others on social media. The survey finds a public deeply divided, including over the very meaning of the phrase.”
4. What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In? The New York Times| November 19, 2020 | Loretta J. Ross
Loretta J. Ross, a professor at Smith College, is challenging students to identify the characteristics and limits of call-out culture. The antidote to that outrage cycle, Professor Ross believes, is “calling in.”
5. Second Chances, Social Forgiveness, and the Internet The American Scholar | March 1, 2009 | Amitai Etzioni
Reflecting upon the changes ushered in by the digital age, Amitai Etzioni explores the difficulties of moving on from our wrongdoings in a world in which details of our misconduct are easily searchable online.
These developments disturb privacy advocates and anyone who is keen on ensuring that people have the opportunity for a new start. Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, says that Internet databases cause a “loss of ‘social forgiveness.’”
6. The Dark Psychology of Social Networks The Atlantic | December 2019 | Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell
Co-authored by a leading social psychologist and an expert in the ethics of technology, this article explores what happens when social media turns communication into a public performance.
7. Is Social Media Fueling a Women’s Rights Revolution in the Orthodox Jewish Community? Religion and Politics | March 30, 2021 | Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt
This article describes the newfound role of social media in campaigns to pressure recalcitrant husbands to free agunot.
“Social media works. Activism works. Pressure works,” Orthodox feminist activist Adina Miles-Sash posted earlier this month on Instagram when one agunah finally received her divorce, which many credited to social media pressure. Speaking to gett refusers, Miles-Sash wrote: “We will have you fired from your job. We will publicly humiliate you. We will find ways to have you arrested. And we will not rest until every prisoner is set free.
8. How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life The New York Times Magazine | February 12, 2015 | Jon Ronson
“I started to wonder about the recipients of our shamings, the real humans who were the virtual targets of these campaigns. So for the past two years, I’ve been interviewing individuals like Justine Sacco: everyday people pilloried brutally, most often for posting some poorly considered joke on social media. Whenever possible, I have met them in person, to truly grasp the emotional toll at the other end of our screens. The people I met were mostly unemployed, fired for their transgressions, and they seemed broken somehow — deeply confused and traumatized.”
9. Students are using Instagram to reveal racism on campus Vox | July 15, 2020 | Terry Nguyen
This article explores “Black At” Instagram accounts, like Black at Harvard Law, that provide space for students to anonymously share racist experiences and mobilize for systemic change.
“For many “Black At” moderators, the goal is not to create what’s akin to a file for their school’s human resources department. The specifics of a student’s story aren’t as important, they say, as bringing to light the trauma and toxicity that students of color face on campus. And while most students have received mainly positive responses from their campus and administrators, some have received pushback on the page from random trolls, community members, or teachers, particularly when it comes to outlining specific incidents.”
10. The Destructiveness of Call-Out Culture on Campus The Atlantic | May 8, 2017 | Conor Friedersdorf
“This self-electing group offered many more complaints and concerns about the social-media era than celebrations. And no negative aspect of the status quo preoccupied my undergraduate correspondents more than the stresses of call-out culture. They had no problem with objections to violence, or slurs, or other serious transgressions; but fretted that call-out culture now goes far beyond matters like that.”