Disclaimer: due to the highly sensitive nature of the topic, all my sources and references to orthodox Jewish communities and the Corona virus are mainstream Jewish and Israeli news outlets.
The Israeli press has reported extensively for the last two days that within the Jewish ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel, the Corona virus has spread like wildfire.
“Israel’s ultra-Orthodox endanger the public” was the headline of yesterday’s Jerusalem Post opinion piece. The article points to the ultra orthodox community as a menace both to the general society and itself. “Some of Israel’s most religious communities, religious leaders, and even the health minister himself r efuse to take the threat of coronavirus seriously enough in their own observant communities. The ultra-Orthodox disdain for secular society in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic endangers both their own communities and the general public.”
The Jerusalem Post reports that “Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, actively called for yeshivot to stay open, in direct opposition to the Health Ministry’s directives. One of the members of Kanievsky’s inner circle told the press that ‘Rabbi Kanievsky says canceling Torah study is more dangerous than corona.’”
Times of Israel reported on a “marked jump in new coronavirus cases Wednesday in Israeli cities with large ultra-Orthodox populations, amid growing concerns over a major outbreak of COVID-19 in the community.”
Bnei Brak, a Tel Aviv suburb with fewer than 200,000 residents, most of them orthodox, has the second most confirmed cases of any Israeli city, though it is the ninth largest in the country by population.
The authorities now accept that it is the orthodox community that spreads the virus in the Jewish State. “Among the other cities in Israel to record a large increase of new coronavirus cases were Modiin Illit, Beit Shemesh, Elad and Beitar Illit, all of which are majority ultra-Orthodox or have sizable Haredi populations.”
Officials are looking at ways to reduce the outbreak in Bnei Brak, where “one in three residents tested for the coronavirus have been found to carry it (33%). The high percentage of positive tests reported Tuesday by the Health Ministry compares to 6% in Tel Aviv and 10% in Jerusalem.”
“Police on Tuesday set up checkpoints around Bnei Brak and were checking IDs of anyone trying to enter, as the government moved toward placing a cordon around the city.”
Bnei Brak’s mayor warned Tuesday evening against making his city into “a ghetto.” Here one may notice that it isn’t the so-called Goyim who ‘push the Jews into the ghetto.’ Instead it is the Israeli government that imposes the on the orthodox community in its attempt to protect the rest of society.
It is clear that in the Jewish State, neither the government nor the media shy away from this problematic topic, and there is good reason to believe that the attitude of the orthodox toward public health is not confined to Israel. A few days ago we learned from Haaretz that more than half of the members of a group of 114 Chabad followers tested positive for the coronavirus and were placed in quarantine after returning from the United States last week. The Israeli paper reports that “The Hasidim, all Israeli citizens, had been studying at a yeshiva in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, which the American authorities fear has been the site of a major outbreak of the virus. Immediately after they landed in Israel, they were separated from other passengers, their passports were confiscated and they were placed on buses that took them to Jerusalem.”
If 50% of the students who returned from the Brooklyn Chabad centre were infected with Corona, there is good reason to assume that the Corona virus is at least as common in the Brooklyn orthodox community as it is in Israeli orthodox enclaves.
The Israeli settler news outlet, Arutz 7, reported yesterday that the situation in the Jewish area, Crown Heights, is indeed grave. “There are no words to describe the feeling of the community; it’s devastating, it’s depressing, and we pray every day that it’s going to be over… In almost every house I’ve spoken to, there’s at least one person who tested positive for coronavirus. We know we were one of the first communities to be hit, so we hope to be the first ones to get over it.”
Kiryas Joel, an orthodox town outside of New York City, is suffocated with Corona cases. Its leaders urge Dr. Vladimir Zelenko (who has since become a household name in America for his allegedly successful treatment of the Corona virus) to stop posting videos online about the outbreak or else leave Kiryas Joel and the Hasidic community out of them. Dr Zelenko estimated that 90% of Kiryas Joel habitants had COVID-19 after 9 of his first 14 tests came back positive.
Click for Full Text!