Compassion, not blame

Although it is upsetting to see the disproportionate number of coronavirus cases in haredi and hassidic communities such as Bnei Brak here in Israel and Monsey and Brooklyn in the United States, the response should be compassion and help rather than blame.

In many of these communities without newspapers, Internet or television, information came late, and when it did it seemed incomprehensible to separate large families cramped into tiny apartments and neighbors from helping each other. It seemed against the natural order of things for an ailing grandmother not to have the help of her daughters and granddaughters, when no other help was available, particularly before holidays.

The disregard for social distancing was not restricted to the haredi communities. I have heard of corona cases among non-Orthodox acquaintances in New York, when mere weeks ago, it seemed absurd to cancel or not attend a large family bar mitzvah, unfortunately with disastrous results.

Moreover, we cannot ignore the “thumbing one’s nose” and total evasion of governmental ordinances by our own young people – for example, on the beaches of Tel Aviv, who seem not only oblivious but uncaring of the pandemic that is killing so many. Indeed, they tell stories of how they “cleverly” evaded police barriers in order to do their own thing.

This should not be a time for finger pointing or blame, but rather for education, empathy and coming together to defeat this viral enemy, after which we hope we will have gained a better understanding of ourselves and our neighbors.

MARION REISS Beit Shemesh