‘Haredim were scapegoat for virus’
As TA cases spike, anger against secular noticeably less than with Orthodox
As the numbers of new COVID-19 cases have increased in recent days following the relaxing of social distancing restrictions, it has become apparent that the previous hot spots of the disease have also shifted.
Whereas in March and April, the epicenters of the coronavirus epidemic were clearly in ultra-Orthodox cities and neighborhoods, the latest hot spot is Tel Aviv, which has witnessed a 9.5% spike in COVID-19 infections over the last three days, amounting to some 66 people.
And several high-profile incidents have taken place in the city this month in which rooftop parties have been staged with larger than permitted numbers of participants and with other violations of Health Ministry orders.
While outrage with the ultra-Orthodox community for what was perceived as a refusal to listen to the Health Ministry instructions was palpable at the height of the crisis, public anger at the incidents in Tel Aviv and other similar events is so far less intense.
And a recent poll demonstrated that the general public does believe that relations between the secular and ultra-Orthodox communities have been damaged.
What explains this disparity in the public’s reaction?
Eli Paley, chairman of the Haredi Institute for Public
Affairs and publisher of Mishpacha Magazine, says that the background tension between the secular and ultra-Orthodox community over other societal concerns is part of the reason.
“The ultra-Orthodox became the scapegoat for the coronavirus,” said Paley. “They are seen as strangers, not part of Israeli society, a different people which isolates themselves, and their separate identity is a challenge to the secular model.”
He also pointed to the divisive series of elections the country endured over the last 18 months, which witnessed heavy attacks by some political parties on the government’s obliging attitude to the ultra-Orthodox parties, attacks which he said became vitriolic and antagonistic.
This increased tensions in the immediate run up to the COVID-19 crisis.
Paley further rejected criticism of the ultra-Orthodox rabbinic leadership, asserting that he did not believe “and have seen no evidence” that their delay in calling on the community to observe the social distancing orders had an impact on the outbreak in the community.
Meni Schwartz, a prominent ultra-Orthodox communications strategist who served as a special adviser to the Health Ministry regarding the ultra-Orthodox community during the height of the crisis, has a different perspective, however.
He first noted that the outbreak in Tel Aviv is far smaller by several orders of magnitude than the outbreak in Bnei Brak and ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem and other cities.
Whereas there were 66 new cases over the last three days in Tel Aviv, averaging out to 22 a day, in Bnei Brak at the
peak of the crisis there were between 700 and 800 new cases every day.
He also noted that the recent spike in Jerusalem had been heavily affected by one incident, the massive outbreak in the Gymnasia High School in the capital’s Rehavia neighborhood, while the spike in Tel Aviv was focused in south Tel Aviv and among the migrant and asylum seeker community. “When we see hundreds of new infections every day in Tel Aviv and single figures in Bnei Brak we could then say ‘here they are complying more and here less,” said Shwartz.
“It is too early to say that there is mass violation of the Health Ministry directives in Tel Aviv and that this is what is causing the rise in numbers,” said Schwartz.
He added that the concentration among the migrants and asylum seekers was likely due to the crowded living conditions there, much like in ultra-Orthodox communities, as well as the lower level of awareness of government directives and other matters related to COVID-19, which characterizes many foreign worker communities in other countries.
Schwartz said that many people in the ultra-Orthodox community had felt insulted and under siege by the onslaught of criticism against them, but said that making the same accusations against secular people in Tel Aviv would be similarly unfounded.
He asserted that the general ultra-Orthodox public was not to blame for the large outbreak among the community, which he said was a result of a lack of awareness of the problem since a large proportion of the community is disconnected from mass and social media, as well as the cramped living conditions in Bnei Brak and other ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
But at the same time, Schwartz is highly critical of the ultra-Orthodox political leadership for failing to act to warn their community at large of the danger posed by the coronavirus epidemic. “He exempted Shas leader and Interior Minister Arye Deri from some of his criticism, although noting that he got involved in the campaign at a relatively late stage, and Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman who’s support for a closure on Bnei Brak he said had a big psychological impact on the community.
But he accused Bnei Brak Mayor Avraham Rubinstein of having failed to prepare his city and its inhabitants for the outbreak of the disease and for dallying for several weeks in March as the number of incidents in his city rose inexorably, while residents were continuing life as usual.
The leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis were themselves
late in responding to the crisis, but Schwartz blames the ultra-Orthodox MKs for failing to impart the seriousness of the hour to the general public and to the rabbis who are the ultimate guides of the community.
“The ultra-Orthodox MKs should have gone from house to house amongst the rabbinic leadership telling them what was happening, each one should have gone on every single radio station to tell the public,” he says, and angrily juxtaposed this torpor with the alacrity with which the MKs take to the media regarding political campaigns and elections.
“Since they are connected to the wider world, and understand that there is a danger to life from the coronavirus and saw that it was taking time for their community to understand the danger because they are disconnected from the media, why didn’t they do anything with urgency when they saw that this disease was life-threatening?” he demanded. “How did they not turn the world upside-down to do everything to get the information out and inform the rabbis? Why did it not bother them? Why wasn’t it the first thing on their agenda? Why did you not want to save the lives of your brothers?” •
products. Last year, she hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, seen by millions around the world. •