Nathan Jeffay is the Times of Israel’s health and science correspondent
But he says he is unable to forget the scene in his wards, with many patients hospitalized in a while after attending large-scale prayer in Roch Hachana’s room. “I hope, in a few days, to get a similar greeting from Yom Kippur, ” he said.
Mevorach, Hadassah’s head of internal medicine, reluctantly delivered his conclusion, and under pressure that living conditions, in addition to driving, played a role in the maximum levels of infection of the Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox Jews. However, “I believe that in some sectors, irresponsible behavior has encouraged the spread of disease, including in Israel,” he said.
He spoke to the Times of Israel about the extent of the Jewish state’s coronavirus disorders in a clearer global context than ever before, and while Israeli fitness officials gave the country reliable statistics on how coronavirus is no more unusual in Haredim than among other citizens.
Israel has an infection point over the past week that is nearly 3 times higher than any other country, according to global knowledge on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, the director general of the Ministry of Health, Chezy Levy, told reporters that about 34% of others diagnosed with the virus in Israel were ultra-Orthodox, with the network accounting for about 12% of the population. On Thursday, the government’s COVID-19 tsar, Ronni Gamzu, cited an even higher figure, saying that about 40% of recent cases were from the ultra-Orthodox.
Other wonderful doctors assiduously reject the kind of conclusion Mevorach reaches: “I believe that the objective disorders faced by the Haredim are dominant, as are their living conditions,” said Jonathan Halevy, president of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Halevy, who spoke to the Times of Israel in an interview about the general situation, and not particularly similar to Mevorach’s comments, said: “It is borderline racism to come up with accusations [of disproportionate ultra-Orthodox responsibility] of disobedience at all. And every one of the sectors of Israeli society, you have noticed it in restaurants, cafes and pubs.
According to him, the haredim have been doomed to suffer a severe blow due to their giant families and dense living conditions, and their misconduct is disproportionate.
Mevorach acknowledges the environmental disorders that make the Haredim prone to infections and said their rates reflected a “multifactorial” reality, but added that there was no escape from other people’s tendency not to comply with fitness rules, advice. “
He reported that some of his existing patients were part of an organization of 1,000 other people who were inflamed after attending Rosh Hashaná’s prayers at the court of Yaakov Aryeh Alter, leader of the Gur Hasidic sect.
According to him, Gur is the “most kosher” of all hassidim in terms of attempts to take precautions against coronaviruses. He said they had tried to put “capsules” instead, dividing the faithful of the giant prayer corridor into small groups, but found it didn’t work.
On the other hand, he is annoyed by the rabbis of some other Haredim communities who, he said, “without shame, ignoring the government’s prerequisites. “He believes this has led many synagogues to receive crowds in Yom Kippur despite blocking rules.
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox sector includes several other communities. In The Hasidic communities, where organizational meetings around the charismatic leader, or Rebe, play a key role in life, rule violations have become widespread to the fullest. It is from this sector where reports arise, much to the chagrin of many secular Israelis – of mass meetings.
In non-Hasidic communities, known as litvak or Lithuanians, regulations are being observed to a greater extent, but they are still being eluded,” said Yehoshua Pfeffer, a Haredi rabbi of that jerusalem-founded network.
“In Kiryat Sefer and elsewhere, for example, they organize minyanim [prayer services] for coronavirus victims, who leave their homes to get there, obviously in violation of regulations,” he told the Times of Israel. “So there is an underlying fear, no doubt, but not necessarily according to regulations, but rather as other people deem it appropriate. “
There have been rumors of Haredi’s clandestine attempts to target collective immunity and other young people seeking to inflame to advance this. These rumors are not shown, however, it is transparent that some yeshiva scholars are discussing the option of intentional infection for seemingly pragmatic reasons. .
“As a rabbi, I won bohrim questions about whether it would be allowed to swell for all sorts of reasons,” Pfeffer said, using the word for yeshiva students. “Some said they were looking to spend the winter, the main time of examining in yeshivas, without worrying about coronavirus. “His response was a non-transparent.
Pfeffer, head of Israel Haredi’s department at the Tikvah Fund, an educational philanthropic foundation, believes that the phenomenon of breaking the rules through other ultra-Orthodox people is very real, claiming that it has been “extended” in some communities, and there it has been a “business as always” attitude in many Hasidic courts.
When asked if it is a behavior, or a circumstance, that leads to the highest infection rates, he said: “It is certainly a mixture of the two. It’s true that other people live in communities and crowded neighborhoods, but it’s also a state of mind. This is also similar to the technique that some Haredim themselves a state within a state in terms of education, networks and culture.
It is fair to expect the Haredim to align themselves with national efforts and, if other people do not, blame them for the numbers shot, but it cannot be completely blamed. Israel’s stage in Haredim.
He said it was OK to highlight the habit of the Haredi network when looking to perceive Israel’s coronavirus levels, but its effect will have to be kept in perspective. “It is a partial conclusion,” he said, adding that he understood “Resentment and anger” felt in Israel’s mainstream, yet he believes it is vital that this is considered one of several points that explain the coronavirus scenario in Israel.
“It is fair to expect that the Haredim will align themselves with national efforts, and if others do not, to attribute duty by increasing numbers, yet you fully attribute duty for the stage in Israel to the Haredim,” he said.
Pfeffer said the insularity of Haredi’s communities, a source of criticism, really deserves to cool the anger felt towards the net now. Their logic is that out-of-network interactions are limited, so if the Haredim have the highest infection rates, the spread outdoors, their communities are limited.
Currently, six of the 8 communities with the occurrence of coronavirus cápita in Israel are predominantly Haredi and Gamzu reportedly told ministers at Wednesday’s cabinet assembly about the coronavirus that ultra-Orthodox Israelis are 2. 5 times more likely to test positive for coronavirus.
About 28. 6% of viral tests administered in Haredi communities have tested positive in recent days, with 13. 4% of testing across Arab communities and 11. 9% of tests in the rest of the country, Gamzu’s knowledge presented to ministers on Wednesday, according to Channel 12.
The scenario reflects a primary change of mindset between the end of the first wave and the start of the wave at the moment, according to Benjamin Brown of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an expert in Israel’s Haredi community, who monitors his media channels and WhatsApp groups.
He told the Times of Israel: “In the first wave, there was disobedience, but it did not manifest itself in radical circles, while in the wave of the moment, others have become much more antagonistic, with ideological disobedience.
This explains the holding of massive weddings and giant prayer meetings, basically in the Hasidic community, in violation of restrictions, he suggested.
Ultra-Orthodox Israelis do not deny the virus, but in some cases doubt that the restrictions are worth the sacrifice, said Brown, who said, “We don’t listen to the Haredim, even in radical circles, say it doesn’t exist yet. “that other people feel, if it’s inevitable, why replace our lives with that?The main logic is that measures are not guaranteed to work.
Other adjustments between the first wave and the wave at the moment, according to Brown, come with the resignation of Yaakov Litzman, the health minister, who is Haredi, that some members of the network no longer feel a specific restriction to adhere to the guidelines of the ministry.
The ouman pilgrimage factor – a massive annual stopover in Rosh Hashanah to the tomb of Rabbi Nahman of Breslov in Ukraine – irrelevant on the first wave, but has become a main source of friction in the wave of the moment, with the Israeli government seeking to save This has enraged some communities, and thousands of pilgrims have left anyway , which would have resulted in cases of coronavirus on 17 flights back to Tel Aviv from Ukraine and Belarus.
Brown added that trust in government, in the component of the general public and the Haredi public that felt selected through public servants, is low”and others say, ‘if the government does not deal with this in the most productive way. ‘way, why replace our lives?'”
Trust between the Haredi network and the government was affected when Tsar Gamzu of coronavirus perceived it as discriminatory opposite the network. “A special regret for the ultra-Orthodox network, which thought of my comments and offensive moves to them and their customs,” Gamzu said. wrote in a message prior to Yom Kippur.
But while the Haredi’s behavior plays a vital role in the way some Israelis interpret community infection rates, the timeline of the existing wave would possibly recommend that the scenario set for Haredim Peak when they did something fully authorized: to return to school after the summer.
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox school formula and schools resumed their studies after their holidays, either with the government’s blessing, but while most Israeli schools returned on September 1, the Haredi sector left on August 21, which gave it an advantage for the spread of the infection and at most two more weeks for the virus to spread before the state re-establishes its studies.
Eran Segal, an expert in viral statistics, gave a symbol of how the top point among the Haredim is rooted in the reopening of the community’s school system. Segal, a computer biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, used the benchmark for the percentage of positive tests, first in the age organization studying in yeshivas, and then among others.
“This is how the virus spread to the ultra-Orthodox sector,” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “One week after the opening of yeshivot on 21 August, the percentage of tests among men over the age of 15 to 21 increased from 5% to 30%. “
Within two weeks, the virus spread to ultra-Orthodox men between the age of 30 and 60, with positive control rates reaching 43%. Today, Haredi’s older men, 70 to 80 years old, are positive in 28% of the cases in which other people are controlled, Segal wrote.
But it is unknown to what extent the authorities stand out from legal educational frameworks and to what extent they come from others operating outside the rules. under special coronavirus regulations, while another 16,000 studied in establishments that did not have the recommended capsule system, for lack of physical infrastructure, and operated without fitness surveillance.
In the haredi of the city of Kiryat Ye’arim, Mayor Yitzhak Ravitz argued that everything that had happened in recent weeks has been prevented by a government blockade imposed since late August, when virus rates were triggered, which would have prevented the return. yeshivas and schools. Not enacting such closure was a “very big mistake” and the Haredim are accused of the consequences of that failure, he said.
Ravitz believes that when national leaders do not act against the virus if it is mandatory and life is allowed to continue more or less regularly, the Haredi network will inevitably be disproportionately affected by others because of its circumstances. “There is an explosion [of contagion] in the Haredi network, and we believe it is due to giant families and the nature of network life,” he said. If, on a secular network, you see your neighbor once a week, we see him three times a day in the synagogue. “
He believes the Haredim are being blamed for doing what other Israelis have done: keeping their routines almost un blocked, as the government has pointed out. having taken this into account in their modeling and made decisions that would have avoided the peak between the Haredim and others, he said.
Unusually strict measures against coronavirus have been put in place in the town of Ravitz: local schooling quarantines the entire circle of relatives after a member is exposed to a doorman, not just the user who had the meeting. quarantined citizens so that there are no grounds for infringement, and does the same for older adults to inspire them to stay at home.
But he admits that the blockade was poorly seen by some Haredim and says this is going down because the government has undermined the credibility of the blockade by making exceptions to its regulations, adding that it allows primary protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue. The authorization to protest gave the impression that lock-up regulations are not a matter of life and death yet of political decision-making, he argued.
“As soon as you see that there are things [apparently] more than coronavirus, such as manifestations, then everyone takes a resolution on their priorities,” he said. “They tell themselves that there are things that are more than blocking. “
Ravitz said it was inevitable that some Haredim would conclude that if meetings were allowed, networked prayer would be allowed and they would take the topics into their own hands.
Pfeffer disagrees with the protest-prayer link. “I wouldn’t give that theory too much credence,” he said. “It was used as a political map, as a political lever, more than anything. But in people’s personal minds, who cares? I don’t think that’s important. “
Pfeffer believes that the main driving force of ultra-Orthodox disobedience is much easier than many other people suspect: the awareness that the fight against the virus is going to be very long.
“There’s a mindset that it’s not going anywhere, so if we ‘need’ to maintain the devoted integrity of the community, that’s how we ‘do it,'” he said.
‘You hear that there is a fear for physical well-being, but the feeling that the pandemic will not pass for some time, and to live with it from’ our ‘view means to do it according to what is a Jewish life, which includes massive meetings with the Rebe and is very common.
He said that in this state of mind, which he understands but rejects, there is even a sense that violators of coronavirus regulations make sacrifices for other devout Jews who respect them strictly, so that the devout regime remains active. “Some say that we keep the fort for all of you, for all of you Jaredi Jews; we pay the value by making sure that the criteria are met”.