A Locked Down Passover
When the Hebrews
were camped in the desert, after fleeing from Pharaoh's chariots,
they ate unleavened bread. Imagine, if you will, approximately 2
million people, men, women, children, plus livestock, and how far the
camp must have stretched across the sand. Probably as far as Herzliya
to Ashdod, the sea to Ramla. Quite a swath of land. Quite a
concentration of people. Stuffed together. Breathing on each other.
No internet. No telephones. No newspapers. No radio. Regulations and
requests were passed, probably, by word of mouth. A messenger on a
horse, mule, ox, rode from tribe to tribe with the news.
In the Haredi
neighborhoods around the world not much has changed. Over-crowded.
Cut off from the world. Locked into their own deep but narrow tribal
structures. This, in an age when five people sharing a ski gondola
riding up the mountain in Sun Valley, Idaho can get infected by a
visitor from Seattle, Washington. The next morning Washington state
confirmed 102 cases and its 16th death.
Like the Mammoth
Mountain Ski Area in Mono County, California which, according to the
New Yorker Magazine, quoting the Adventure Journal, now has the
highest per-capita rate of COVID-19 in the state. And in Europe,
governments tracked hundreds of coronavirus cases to one Austrian ski
resort.
The fact that the
Jewish community in Britain has so far lost 115 people, about 2% of
all those who have perished so far in Britain, while making up only
about .3% of the population is not surprising considering that the
British government was slow to institute social distancing. The
Jewish communities around the world, like those in Britain, are
usually as packed together as those five passengers on a ski gondola.
Britain’s Prime
Minister Boris Johnson, like US President Donald Trump, and the
Haredi population ignored the warnings of the COVID-19’s dangers.
Johnson’s folly caught up to him, said one pundit. He was diagnosed
with the virus and has become increasingly ill. So far PM Johnson is
not on a ventilator. According to Israel TV’s foreign affairs
commentator Yoav Vardi, 85% of those put on a ventilator does not
survive the virus.
Like the tribes in
the desert, said one analyst, Haredi communities live in a bubble.
Communication is primitive. Posters on walls and along the streets
are the common form of transmitting the information. Or the occasional
visitor, like the messengers on the horse in the desert, bringing
news. Haredi en concentrate on learning tractates of the Talmud and
commentaries, buried in their books, or thinking about the writings
when walking down the street, nearly oblivious to the outside world.
Their wives concentrate on having babies, raising children, cooking
and cleaning, unless, lately they’re sent out to earn money in
hi-tech in a room with other women all on a computer while their
husbands sit and “learn.”
By the time the
warnings broke through their mental barriers and into their homes the
damage was done. This was because the messengers didn’t come from
inside the community, but from the dangerous outside that has always
been critical of the ultra-orthodox and always trying to wrest them
away from their books and insular way of life. Bring them into the
“Godless” Western world.
Observers say, these
people believe deeply that their way of life has been responsible for
keeping the Jewish people together for thousands of years. But that
they have built a fence not only around the Torah but around
themselves,
Some pundits blame
the Haredi leadership for not telling their followers how dangerous
the virus was. But others point out that those leaders had the same mindset as their followers. Specifically, that outsiders were not to
be trusted. Once the followers, and some of the leaders, began
exiting the community on stretchers, the reality began to sink in. By
then it was almost too late.
The Israel Defense
Ministry issued a report stating that one-third of all virus cases in
Israel centered either in Bnei Brak or Jerusalem. ZAKA, the
emergency medical response organization geared to the Haredi
population said the ultra-orthodox were completely confused by the
virus and were looking for leadership.
Some Israelis
pointed the blame at the Minister of Health, Yaacov Litzman, a Gerer
Hassid, who refused for too long to support self-distancing and
quarantines and closing yeshivot and religious schools. He reportedly
flaunted the rules and went to a synagogue for Shabat services. He
paid the price, too. Recently, it was announced that he was infected,
in quarantine, but in good condition.
An opinion piece in
the Times of Israel said that this pandemic might bring a change in
the way Haredi sees the world and produces more independent thought.
Other analysts thought this wishful thinking.
In the Haredi city
of Benei Brak, 38% of the population was infected before the leaders
stepped in, put up notices and posters urging the people to keep
their distance. Still, many ignored the directive. Continued to
gather in study halls and synagogues. The police came in and broke up
the gatherings issuing fines up to $1,500. Skeptics said the fines
would never be paid. Those who wanted to gather were like water
finding a way to seep in between the cracks.
So, more people got
sick. Ramat Gan, the town bordering Benai Brak, put up a fence at
cross streets to keep Benei Brak’s residents from coming into Ramat
Gan and infecting people there. The city of Benei Brak took the case
to the High Court and the fences came down. Reluctantly, say
observers. And not completely. So far in Israel, there have been 60
deaths from the virus with over 9,000 infections. 109 people are on
life support due to the virus.
Yet, in Modiin
Illit, a Haredi town with a population of 73,000, and 151 infected, a
brawl took place when hard-line residents refused to obey Health
Ministry pandemic rules. According to Channel 12 news, while protestors yelled “Help, Judaism is in danger,” and urged others
to ignore the social distancing rules including a ban on public
gatherings, other residents assaulted and chased them. The Kan TV
network said two prayer services, each with 15 people, were broken up
by the police. One of the parishioners told a reporter he does not
recognize the State of Israel nor its regulations. The groups were
part of the hard-line Jerusalem Faction that protests the draft of
ultra-orthodox men into the Israeli army.
Officials fear that
family gatherings for the Passover seder would result in another
outbreak of the virus as happened during the Purim festival. Because
it was mainly the Haredi towns and neighborhoods that were the most
infected in the country, the government proposed to shut down 8
Haredi cities and 15 Jerusalem neighborhoods to stop the spread of
the virus. Reportedly, Haredi Health minister Aryeh Deri and Health
Minister Yaacov Litzman objected, playing to their constituency with
both claiming the government was discriminating against the Haredi
population. Both deny the claim.
Last night, a
a compromise was reached that will not include the Arab population who does not celebrate the Passover holiday. On Tuesday, the Israeli
cabinet approved closure and curfew over the Passover holiday to
stem the spread of COVID-19. The cabinet issued a ban on all
intercity traffic from 19:00 on Tuesday until 06:00 on Friday.
Supermarkets, food deliveries, and essential services will operate
only until 15:00 on Wednesday, but will resume Friday morning.
During the lockdown,
Israelis will be allowed to only go 100 meters from their homes. All
businesses will be shut. Jerusalem residents will be confined to
their neighborhoods, especially those in the northern part of the
city that has the largest number of virus cases. Public
transportation will cease from 20:00 Tuesday until Sunday morning.
All international flights will also be canceled during that period
unless granted special permission by the government. As of Sunday at
07:00, face masks will be mandatory outside the home
One analyst said,
‘This will be a Passover for the history books, said one pundit.
Except there was no parting of the Red Sea. Just a plague.’
