Over half of COVID- 19 infections among seniors are ultra- Orthodox

At least 18 Bnei Brak residents died in past week • Haredi leader Rabbi Asher Weiss: ‘ We will not be able to say our hands did not shed this blood’

Some 52% of COVID- 19 patients over the age of 65 in Israel are ultra- Orthodox, new figures released by the Health Ministry show, and a large number were infected during prayer services over the High Holy Days.

Ultra- Orthodox citizens over the age of 65 are just 3% of the population, however, meaning that the rate of coronavirus infection among the elderly in the ultra- Orthodox sector is far higher than their proportion of the population.

At the same time, at least 18 people in the ultra- Orthodox city of Bnei Brak died from COVID over the last six days, and 61 people in the city were hospitalized in severe condition on Monday alone.

The percentage of positive tests in the city is also extremely high standing at 25%, compared to 7.7% nationally.

In Bnei Brak, which has an older population than other ultra- Orthodox cities, such as Modi’in Illit and Beitar Illit, the mortality rate among those aged 70 – 74 is 4.9 deaths per 1,000 population, six times the national average, and 12.9 deaths per 1,000 population for over 75 in the city, nearly four times the national average.

In light of the worrying figures, the Health Ministry’s Ultra- Orthodox Public Advocacy Desk launched a new information campaign calling for extra diligence in observing the health guidelines to reduce infection and protect seniors in particular.

“Do not forsake me in old age,” the Health Ministry ad implores with a picture of an elderly man holding a cane.

“They are the ones who sacrificed for us all their lives, they were there for us day and night, taught, educated and took care of us. They are our mothers and fathers,” it continues and urges people to obey the COVID health regulations.

Despite these worrying figures, the rate of infection in the ultra- Orthodox sector is now declining along with the rest of the country, albeit from a far higher level.

Among the general public, the rate of infection is 2.8 per 10,000 compared with 14.1 per 10,000 in the ultra- Orthodox sector as of October 10, although that figure has declined from a high of 23 per 10,000 on October 6.

Similarly, the number of positive COVID- 19 tests among the ultra- Orthodox community is also declining, and currently stands at 18.9%, compared with 28% at the end of September.

The nationwide percentage of positive tests is, however, just 6.3% as of October 11.

Against the background of the high rates of infection in

the sector, and the high mortality rate amongst its elderly, Rabbi Asher Weiss, a prominent and highly respected ultra- Orthodox leader and arbiter of Jewish law, issued a strongly worded statement in which he insisted the community adhere to health regulations and said the situation in the sector regarding COVID- 19 was shameful.

The rabbi listed a series of examples from the Talmud and later rabbinical authorities who all ruled that Jewish law required health instructions of the time to be adhered to in the extreme.

“Shame should cover our faces when there is no day whose curses are not greater than the previous one, and when every day the sick from this disease are dying every day, amongst them hassidic grand rabbis, yeshiva deans, incredible Torah teachers, and Jewish people, with thousands groaning in pain and suffering,” wrote Weiss.

“And we will not be able to say our hands did not shed this blood,” he added.

The rabbi said that the ultra- Orthodox community should be stricter in its observance of measures to reduce COVID- 19 infections than even those prescribed by the Israeli and global medical authorities because of their Jewish faith, which demands that people protect their lives.

“The holy Torah alone is our guiding light, and it commands us to ‘ greatly protect your lives,’ and how can we not be embarrassed when those who do not observe the commandments and the nations of the world are astounded when people of the Torah are not spared,” he said.

Separately, the religious freedom NGO Hiddush said on Tuesday that it will file a petition to the High Court

of Justice against any government decision which allows ultra- Orthodox schools and yeshivas to return to their studies before the state school system, which is currently shuttered due to the COVID19 crisis.

The ultra- Orthodox parties are reportedly seeking to implement a plan whereby they would agree to lockdowns of ultra- Orthodox cities as long as schools and yeshivas for boys and young men in the sector could reopen.

Ultra- Orthodox girls schools would not reopen and boys would use their empty classrooms to reduce class sizes.

Hiddush director Rabbi Uri Regev sent a letter to the prime minister, health minister, education minister and attorney- general, stating that as long as the relevant authorities are of the opinion that opening educational institutions is dangerous enough to justify keeping them closed, the government must not allow institutions in the ultra- Orthodox sector to open.

Regev also insisted that the proposal itself to keep girls’ schools shuttered in order to allow boys schools to open was discriminatory and unlawful.

“Any discrimination in the education system is fundamentally illegitimate, whether between ultra- Orthodox and others, whether between boys and girls, whether it is any other form of discrimination,” wrote Regev. “Any decision of the coronavirus cabinet at this difficult time requires total equality for all Israeli pupils from all sectors, Jews and non- Jews, the completely secular and the ultra- Orthodox, and boys and girls.”

He said that if any discriminatory decision is made regarding the reopening of schools, including “the ongoing policy of authorities to turn a blind eye to institutions which blatantly violate the coronavirus regulations,” Hiddush would appeal to the High Court to prevent it being implemented.

Similarly, the Israel Be Free secularist organization also threatened to petition the High Court over such a decision, saying such a policy would amount to “the politicization of decisions regarding public health.”

Israel Be Free director Uri Keidar wrote in his letter to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein that his organization would fight any decision which exempts ultra- Orthodox yeshivas from the national closure imposed on the general education system in the relevant courts. •

institutions – is the one the general public heard about, and which will only increase antagonism toward haredim. Klein’s speech – one which actually provided a degree of understanding of the haredi mindset – was limited largely to the haredi community.

In Eichler’s telling, the government’s decision to close synagogues and yeshivot, precisely during the month of the High Holy Days, is an indication of the godlessness in the country that “as the years go by, loses even more of its connection to Judaism.”

In Eichler’s narrative, the haredim who violated the regulations and stubbornly went ahead with their holiday observances as usual were nothing less than religious heroes, “proud to be Jews who know how to pass on to future generations that the Jewish tradition continues vigorously despite all the decrees and attempts” to wipe it out.

As if the goal of the Jewish state in issuing the restrictive COVID- 19 regulations was to uproot Jewish religious observance; as if the State of Israel is akin to Soviet Russia.

Not only did his words not shed any light to a public that would like to hear a rationale for the behavior of the ultra- Orthodox, but his indictment will only cause more animosity toward the community he represents. Not so the words of Klein. Though one might not agree with him, he provided at least a rationale for haredi actions during the virus. And he did it with the use of a well- known story from the Talmud’s Tractate Brachot in which the second century sage Rabbi Akiva, who was teaching Torah at a time when the Romans banned it, was warned that he was putting people’s lives at risk.

Akiva answered with a parable about a fox and fish.

One day, Akiva said, a fox walked by a river and saw fish darting about. When the fox asked why the fish were fleeing, they replied that they were escaping fishermen. The fox said if that was indeed the case, they should just come up on the dry land and he would protect them.

The fish replied: If we are in danger here in the water where we live, how much more so would we be in danger on dry land, where we would surely die?

“I once said that the fox is not stupid: The fox has the head of an animal – he doesn’t understand the life of the fish,” Klein said. “According to his mentality, he explains [ to the fish] what needs to be done. But the fish live differently, with the water, and the fox does not understand their life. The same thing here: Those who are not Torah people don’t understand that Torah and mitzvot are what sustain Israel.”

Without Torah and mitzvot, we have no life, Klein

continued.

“There are opinions among the doctors that gatherings should be prevented to prevent infection. And that is right – gatherings cause infections. But there is a need to distinguish between gatherings for optional activities, and gatherings to perform a mitzvah,” he said.

The latter falls into a completely different category, Klein argued, adding that the sages said that those engaged in performing a mitzvah will be protected and saved by those mitzvot. Further, he said, the figures of those coming down with the virus does not reach the level of what could halachically be characterized as commonly present danger.

As to the reality of a concern for infection, Klein said that “we have a different way of looking at the whole thing.”

To explain his point, he again launched into a story, this time of the 19th century sage Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Chafetz Chaim, who was taking a number of big donors to a hospital. They had each donated a number of beds for the facility.

When a Torah scholar entered, Kagan left the donors to greet and bestow respect on the scholar. When challenged by the donors about this, and reminded that the scholar did not donate any beds, Kagan replied that the scholar’s learning and praying prevents people from being sick.

And that, Klein said, is “the basic principle that we must keep. We must know that the perspective of the doctors is not the Torah perspective. A Torah perspective is very different.”

Anticipating, perhaps, the argument that one can perform mitzvot and follow the Torah even if synagogues or yeshivot are closed, he said that the “alternative of praying or studying in the street is not right. It is impossible to study or pray like that – we need the life of Torah and mitzvot in the usual way.”

This attitude of a need to do things in the “usual way” was echoed by the Belzer Rebbe, Yissachar Dov Rokeach, who told his followers on Sunday night they “need to act like they have always acted.”

Dov Eichler, a haredi journalist and the son of the UTJ politician who grew up in a Belz household, was grilled about this comment on Kan Bet Tuesday morning in light of the fact that the Belzer Rebbe is currently sick with COVID- 19 and has had an intensive care unit set up in his home.

“We are essentially speaking in two different languages,” Eichler said, summing up succinctly the difference between the haredi and non- haredi perspectives. “He is speaking about the spiritual life, eternal life, the life of the world to come, and we are speaking about the material world.”