By Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Outside the synagogue in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof in Jerusalem, is a poster featuring Osnat Ben Sheetrit, a pregnant mother of four children who died of COVID-19, and the words: “For the ascension of her soul, be grafted in.”
The sharp message is part of a health care campaign targeting Israel’s 1.2 million ultra-Orthodox Jews, the community hardest hit by the coronavirus but also blamed by many secular Israelis for extending the pandemic by ignoring the closing rules.
Now the infection rates among the Haredim, as it is known in Israel, have dropped sharply and for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic fell below the national average. The incidence of serious diseases has also dropped, and vaccine intake is at 72%, a relatively high rate worldwide, although it is still below the national rate of 86% in Israel.
The move comes on the back of an order from the leading rabbis of the Haredim, who for some have far more authority in their communities than the state, to endorse the vaccine, while Israel began in late December.
“I personally went to rabbinical classes and sat with the rabbis and the public,” said Ran Balicer of Clalit, Israel’s largest healthcare provider.
“The bottom line was that the rabbis declared the rabbinic ruling that the vaccine is safe and effective and should be taken.”
The decision was a turning point for the community plagued by the virus, where by February one in every 100 Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews over the age of 60 had died from COVID-19 – nearly six times higher than among their mainstream counterparts.
The Haredim, which makes up about 12% of Israel’s 9.3 million inhabitants, accounts for 28% of the total recorded 800,000 cases of coronavirus, according to Eran Segal, a data scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
However, things are looking up. According to the Ministry of Health, they now make up about the same proportion of new cases as their relative share of the population, even slightly less, and have also seen the largest decline in serious diseases than any other sector since a third wave ‘ reached a peak. mid-January.
RESIDENCE
Even if Israel’s leading vaccination begins to lift the country out of the depths of the pandemic, the social and political toll of the ultra-Orthodox will not end quickly.
“When a Haredi man gets on a bus, everyone looks at him as if he is leprous. That’s why Haredim feels persecuted. There is a lack of empathy towards them,” said Roni Numa, who heads of the ultra-Orthodox task force of the Ministry of Health.
In a protracted election stance, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will enter his fourth election in two years on March 23, with ultra-Orthodox parties a mainstay of his right-wing coalition.
And while Netanyahu has won plumes at home and abroad for the deployment of vaccines, extended barriers have paralyzed the economy.
Many blamed the Haredim, some of whom the rabbis instructed followers to defy the law and send disciples to class, and angered the malicious Israelites, whose schools were closed.
“You could see (shut down) transgressions in every Israeli sector … but what happened in the Haredi community … is that the transgressions came from the leadership,” said Yair Ettinger, an analyst of religious affairs of the Israeli public broadcaster Can, said.
In addition, Netanyahu is considered to be ignoring the blatant transgressions of the ultra-Orthodox for the reasons that critics say are political reasons.
The anger escalated as evening news programs attended photos of massive funerals attended by thousands of Haredim in the street, and social networks filled with videos of big weddings and holiday celebrations.
Numa said the vast majority of the Haredim are locked up on the ground. Ultra-Orthodox leaders have said their community is being unfairly investigated.
Compliance, or lack thereof, was not the only factor in how the Haredim fared during the pandemic; it spread rapidly within the close-knit community whose large families lived in densely populated neighborhoods and towns.
Many ultra-Orthodox were slow to avoid information about the pandemic that other Israelis received through television, newspapers, and the Internet.
In addition, with seven children per average ultra-Orthodox family, living mostly in a small house, lock-in was a struggle for many of the Haredim who adhered to it.
“We did not have Zoom, it was all done telephonically, every family had to get their hands on phones and every child had to find a quiet place in the house,” Chadad said.
While most Israeli schoolchildren are kept at a distance in virtual class, the Haredim remains cut off.
But Chadad said the worst was now behind Israel’s Haredim. “We overcome coronavirus. With God’s help we will be a light to the nations and quickly return to normal life.”
(Additional reporting by Dedi Hayun and Ronen Zvulun; Written by Maayan Lubell; Edited by Raissa Kasolowsky)