More widely, police action against them is seen by many Israelis as a long-running attempt to end the exceptionalism that has characterized the ultra-Orthodox for decades. This allows them to evade military service, live on state benefits and often act like kingmakers in Israeli politics, critics and political rivals say.
Bnei Brak, a largely ultra-Orthodox city of more than 200,000, and the small Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim have seen the worst of the violence.
Extremists within the community are accused of graffiti on a wall in Jerusalem that says the police chief in the city is ‘Hitler’.
The atmosphere became so feverish that some Haredim, as the ultra-Orthodox collectively are known, pinned yellow Star of David badges on their jackets and described recent police actions in Bnei Brak as ‘Kristallnacht’.
These allusions to the Holocaust and allegations of Israeli ‘Nazism’ have been widely condemned by rabbis and politicians within the Haredi community. But the same leaders were at best unclear as to whether they should obey the country’s lockdown and social distance measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, has repeatedly ordered the schools of the community to remain open for many months in defiance of government regulations. Recently it is reported that the rabbi said that they should not open if the confrontation with the police seems likely.
According to the Ministry of Health, the percentage of deaths associated with Covid people under 65 among the ultra-Orthodox is about 3.6% higher than the Israeli norm.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, Haredi communities show more than 20% of those tested for infection rates, and ultra-Orthodox patient admissions are among the highest in the country.
Haredi families have an average of seven children and are (along with Israeli Arabs) the poorest community in the country. They live in densely populated areas where the men are encouraged to spend a lifetime studying religion.
According to the OECD, almost half of the Haredi population lives in material poverty.
Although they are rarely integrated with other sections of Israeli society, they live a very active social and religious life. Gathering regularly in large numbers is a central part of their cultural life.
“Every hour for hours, we are in synagogues, we meet each other, we are together in lessons, we meet the rabbis every day, more on the Sabbath,” Dov Halbertal, an ordained rabbi and expert on Jewish law, told CNN said.
‘In the end, it’s practically very difficult [to socially distance]. “Besides being big families, we have people of every age, we have 10 people in one small apartment, it’s very difficult … Being locked in the apartment, you’re used to a social life, ‘he said. said.
Halbertal, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, is also very critical of fellow rabbis who have been leading their communities for nearly a year in revolt against nationwide regulations that sought to lower Israel’s infection rate in Covid-19.
He said many rabbis feared that their followers would suffer spiritual harm if they stayed away from study and common prayers. And that some feared that younger members would stray completely from their congregations.
“The rabbis could lose their power over communities,” Halbertal added.
But he condemned the Haredim for putting them above the secular laws that were meant to save lives.
Halbertal spoke on a street in Mea Shearim where almost every corner was pasted with posters announcing the recent deaths of ultra-Orthodox people. They were not all killed by Covid, but it’s hard to avoid a feeling that there are more of these black-and-white notices than usual.
“I like the ultra-Orthodox I belong to. But I see that the moral failure is so deep and for me I can not sleep at night when I think of the deaths – of their blood in the earth screaming for us. Time of our test, of our moral test as religious people, ”Halbertal said.
The Israeli government is considering extending a strict exclusion for a week, and some politicians have called for a doubling of the fines for violations of social distance regulations.
Infection rates and deaths have dropped slightly, but remain high, even though Israel remains the global leader in vaccine deployment, with about a third of those targeted for vaccination.
The mayor of Bnei Brak, Avraham Rubinstein, maintains that his city is mastering the Covid regulations and condemns violence and attacks on the police.
“There are some people who act violently. We condemn them. We do not want them, and their own communities do not want it. Their communities handed it over to the police,” he said, a few days ago. thereafter he was personally threatened in the city streets by crowds of extremist Haredi youths.
Rubinstein insisted that most schools and synagogues be closed and that the municipality vigorously manage the vaccination campaign. The data from the Ministry of Health indicates that it still has a long way to go in places like Bnei Brak, with only 12% receiving their first dose. Many other Haredi communities are low in single digits.
Part of this poor vaccination record can be explained as a result of a boycott encouraged by anonymous red posters seen everywhere in Mea Shearim.
They say the media is part of a conspiracy to conceal evidence that the vaccination campaign began at the same time as a new Covid variant emerged in the UK, calling the shot a ‘vaccination of death’.
The same posters may also be the reason why a CNN team filming in the area was attacked by teenage students of the yeshiva (religious school) who tried to break a camera and called the media ‘murderers’.
Michael Schwartz contributed to this report.