JERUSALEM (AP) – Mendy Moskowits, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Belz Hasidic sect in Jerusalem, does not understand the uproar against believers like him.
In recent weeks, ultra-Orthodox Jews have defied coronavirus restrictions by holding large funerals for beloved rabbis who passed away at COVID-19, who celebrated great weddings and still sent their children to schools. The rallies led to clashes with police and an unprecedented wave of public anger against the religious community.
On Tuesday night, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters protested the closure, set fire to dumping stars and clashed with police in Jerusalem.
Moscow, like many other ultra-Orthodox believers, says Israeli society does not understand their way of life and has turned its community into a scapegoat.
“I think the media is giving a very bad misrepresentation,” he said.
The ultra-Orthodox community makes up about 12% of Israel’s 9.3 million people. But it exerted great influence by using his status as king in parliament to ensure benefits and generous government subsidies.
Ultra-Orthodox men are exempt from compulsory military service and often collect welfare payments while attending seminary full-time in adulthood. Their schools enjoy broad autonomy and focus almost entirely on religion while avoiding basic subjects such as mathematics and science.
These privileges caused contempt for the general public – resentment that boiled over to utter hostility during the coronavirus crisis.
Gilad Malach, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, says that by 2020, ultra-Orthodox believers accounted for more than a third of COVID-19 cases in the country. Among Israelis over the age of 65, the ultra-Orthodox mortality rate was three times that of the general population. , he added.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that vaccination rates in ultra-Orthodox areas are far behind the national average.
Malach said the ultra-orthodox non-compliance stems in part from the fact that members do not believe they “must obey the rules of the state, especially not with regard to questions of religious conduct.”
Ultra-Orthodox, also known as ‘Haredim’, follow a strict interpretation of Judaism, and prominent rabbis are the arbitrators of the community in all matters. Many view secular Israelis as a recent departure from centuries of unchanging Jewish tradition.
‘We have rabbis. We are not just doing what we have in mind, ”Moskowits said. “We’re been listening to them for a few thousand years. We will also listen to them today. ”
Although the ultra-Orthodox community is far from monolithic, many rabbis have ignored or even deliberately weakened the safety rules. The 93-year-old Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most influential spiritual leaders, insisted that schools remain open throughout the crisis.
On a recent day, numerous ultra-Orthodox girls dropped out of a primary school in the Romema area that was in violation of the law. Few wore masks or kept their distance from others. Classes were offered to nearby boys and children.
“We can not let a generation go,” said Moskowits, who lives in Romema. “We still send our boys to school because we have rabbis who say that Torah study saves and protects.”
In a community that largely avoids the Internet, rabbis patch ‘pashkevils’, or public notices, on walls in religious neighborhoods to spread their messages.
Some notices encouraged people not to be vaccinated, and even used Holocaust images to scare people. ‘The vaccine is completely unnecessary! The pandemic is already behind us! One reads, and compares the rush to vaccinations with the train to the Auschwitz death camp.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders say such views are held by a radical minority. Most people respect the safety rules, they say, and spread the virus because communities are poor and people live in small apartments with large families.
Moskowits, a 29-year-old father of two, said some families have up to ten children and only one bathroom. Boys are sent to residences from 14 and only spend the Sabbath at home.
For many people, the closure is “technically, physically not applicable”, Moskowits said. He calls it a ‘violation of human rights’.
Moskowits, who grew up in the United Kingdom, speaks English with a British accent, but his vocabulary is very spiced with Yiddish and Hebrew words. He wears the black velvet hat, white shirt and black shorts that are typical of ultra-Orthodox men – but no mask, despite the government requiring it in public. He said he contracted COVID-19 in March and claimed that a letter from his doctor excused him from wearing a mask.
He is a real estate developer and adjusts his workday with prayers at a nearby synagogue, trying once a week to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest place where Jews can worship. Once a day, he performs ablutions in a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, and regularly studies religious texts with a partner.
The religious community is growing rapidly although economists have long warned that the system is unsustainable. About 60% of its population is under 19, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.
Protecting the ultra-Orthodox way of life – or Judaism – is the ultimate goal of the community. If it means spreading infections, it’s the price some members are willing to pay.
Ultra-Orthodox people “sacrifice most of their lives for the next generation and for the preservation of Judaism. We give everything away, “said Moskowits.
This view is hardly universal.
Nathan Slifkin, an Orthodox rabbi living in Israel, complained in a recent remark in the Jewish Chronicle that members of the Haredi community “really see no connection between the restriction and the people who die from COVID.”
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of an ultra-Orthodox ambulance service called ZAKA, lost both his parents to the virus in January. He says rabbis who urge followers to violate coronavirus regulations have ‘blood on their hands’.
Funerals play a central role in traditional Jewish life, and the pandemic has made this all too common. Cars with megaphones drive through religious neighborhoods to announce deaths and funeral details. Pashkevils notify communities when a prominent rabbi dies.
Shmuel Gelbstein, deputy director of a funeral home in Jerusalem for the ultra-Orthodox community, said it was’ very busy, very difficult in terms of deaths, both in terms of ordinary deaths, and of course coronavirus, which is definitely an amount that contributes to the burden. ”
Funerals for two prominent Haredi rabbis who died of COVID-19 last week drew an estimated 10,000 mourners.
The non-Orthodox majority of Israel was furious at what they saw as contempt for the rules and selective application of authorities.
But the ultra-Orthodox claim they are being unfairly singled out, noting that demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – protected under legitimate speech laws – were allowed to continue during the pandemic.
Moskowits explained that prominent young people are “a big part of your life” for the young men who flocked to these funerals.
“When these younger guys go to a funeral, they feel like their father has died,” he said. “Nothing stands in the way. He will go to the funeral anyway. ‘