JERUSALEM (AP) — Mendy Moskowits, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Belz Hassidic sect in Jerusalem, doesn’t understand the uproar toward believers like him.
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In recent weeks, ultra-Orthodox Jews have defied coronavirus restrictions by holding big funerals for beloved rabbis who died of COVID-19, celebrating large weddings, and continuing to send their children to schools. The gatherings have led to clashes with police and an unprecedented wave of public anger toward the religious community.
On Tuesday night, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators protested lockdown restrictions, set dumpsters on fire, and faced off with police officers in Jerusalem.
Moskowits, like many other ultra-Orthodox faithful, says Israeli society doesn’t understand their way of life and has turned his community into a scapegoat.
“The media gives us, in my opinion, a very bad misrepresentation,” he said.
The ultra-Orthodox community makes up about 12% of Israel’s 9.3 million people. Gilad Malach, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, says ultra-Orthodox believers accounted for over a third of the country’s COVID-19 cases in 2020. Among Israelis over 65, the community’s mortality rate was three times that of the general population, he added.
Health Ministry data show vaccination rates in ultra-Orthodox areas lag far behind the national average.
But the ultra-Orthodox community has wielded outsize influence, using its kingmaker status in parliament to secure benefits and generous government subsidies.
Ultra-Orthodox men are exempt from compulsory military service and often collect welfare payments while continuing to study full time in seminaries throughout adulthood. Their schools enjoy broad autonomy and focus almost entirely on religion while shunning basic subjects like math and science.
These privileges have generated disdain from the general public — resentment that has boiled over into outright hostility during the coronavirus crisis.
Ultra-Orthodox noncompliance, Malach said, stemmed in part from members not believing that they “need to obey the rules of the state, especially regarding questions of religious behavior.”
Ultra-Orthodox, also known as “Haredim,” follow a strict interpretation of Judaism, and prominent rabbis are the community’s arbiters in all matters. Many consider secular Israelis a recent aberration from centuries of unaltered Jewish tradition.
“We have rabbis. We don’t just do what we have in our minds,” Moskowits said. “We have listened to them for a few thousand years. We will listen to them today as well.”
While the ultra-Orthodox community is far from monolithic, many rabbis have either ignored or even intentionally flouted safety rules. The 93-year-old Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most influential spiritual leaders, has insisted schools remain open throughout the crisis.
On a recent day, scores of ultra-Orthodox girls cascaded from a grade school in the Romema neighborhood that was operating in violation of the law. Few wore masks or maintained distance from others. Classes went on at nearby boys’ elementary schools and yeshivas.
“We can’t have a generation go bust,” said Moskowits, who lives in Romema. “We are still sending our boys to school because we have rabbis who say Torah study saves and protects.”
In a community that largely shuns the internet, rabbis plaster “pashkevils,” or public notices, on walls in religious neighborhoods to spread their messages.
Some notices urged people not to get vaccinated, even using Holocaust imagery to scare people. “The vaccine is completely unnecessary! The pandemic is already behind us!” one read, comparing the rush for vaccinations to boarding a train to the Auschwitz death camp.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders say such views are held by a radical minority. Most people respect safety rules, they say, and the virus is spreading 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 10 children and just one bathroom. From 14, boys are sent to boarding schools and spend only the sabbath at home.
For many, lockdown “technically, physically doesn’t work,” Moskowits said. He called it a “human rights violation.”
Moskowits, who grew up in the U.K., speaks English with a British accent, but his vocabulary is heavily seasoned with Yiddish and Hebrew words. He wears the black velvet skullcap, pressed white shirt and black slacks typical of ultra-Orthodox men — but no mask, despite the government requiring them in public. He said he contracted COVID-19 in March and claims a letter from his doctor excuses him from wearing a mask.
A real estate developer, he punctuates his workday with prayers at a neighborhood synagogue, and tries once a week to pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can worship. Once a day, he performs ablutions at a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, and he regularly studies religious texts with a partner.
The religious community is growing rapidly even though 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 Yiddishkeit — is the community’s ultimate aim. If that means infections spread, that’s a price some members are willing to pay.
Ultra-Orthodox people “sacrifice most of their lives for the next generation and for preserving Yiddishkeit. We give away everything,” Moskowits said.
This view is hardly universal.
Nathan Slifkin, an Orthodox rabbi living in Israel, complained in a recent op-ed in the Jewish Chronicle that members of the Haredi community “genuinely see no connection between flouting the restrictions and people dying 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 urging followers to violate coronavirus regulations have “blood on their hands.”
Funerals play a central role in traditional Jewish life, and the pandemic has made them all too common. Cars with megaphones drive through religious neighborhoods announcing deaths and funeral details. Pashkevils notify communities when a prominent rabbi dies.
Shmuel Gelbstein, deputy director of a Jerusalem funeral society for the ultra-Orthodox community, said this year has been “very busy, very difficult regarding mortality, both when it comes to ordinary deaths, plus of course coronavirus, which is certainly an amount that adds to the load.”
Funerals for two leading Haredi rabbis who died of COVID-19 each drew an estimated 10,000 mourners last week.
Israel’s non-Orthodox majority was outraged at what they saw as contempt for the rules and selective enforcement by authorities.
But the ultra-Orthodox claim they are being unfairly singled out, noting that demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — protected under free speech laws — have been permitted to continue during the pandemic.
Moskowits explained that for the young men who flocked to these funerals, prominent rabbis are “a huge part of your life.”
“When these younger guys go to a funeral, they feel that their father died,” he said. “Nothing stands in the way. He will go to the funeral anyway.”
For many, lockdown “technically, physically doesn’t work,” Moskowits said. He called it a “human rights violation.”
Yes Moskowitz is 1000% correct. Many people even on VIN just don’t get it. They are thick headed. It doesn’t work for us. We as a frum charedi group live off social interaction. Its ESSENTIAL for us. Yes our kids must attend cheder. No zoom. A child needs to see the rebbe in person and need not be taught zoom. That’s the way he learns Torah. And yes our girls need to attend Bais Yaakov. Its also a social need. We have large families in tiny apartments. Its very dangeours for kids to be home all day with no structure. Yes this is a non negotiable must. I get it if it’s a one time deal for a few weeks like last pesach. (Side note, that a 3 month closure which is way out of hand added to our skepticism of it.) But, it cannot go on for two years. We will not allow our children to grow up like this. Yes it elevates the danger but as they say in ivrit ein mah lasot. It’s a must.
The same is true for weeding’s, our doros must have continuity and must get married. No ifs and or buts.
The same is true for shuls. Don’t sell me the halacha minyan only a minhag nonsense. Shuls are our mikdash mat. Its where so much of yiddishkiet is gleaned from. (yes even a shlosh seduas or nice kiddush). No we can’t and will not give that up for 2 years. Same is about a reba tish, or a levaya.
No this is not about being selfish. Its about the essence of who we are. No-one is denying the magafa. We deny the medicine . We say social distance (a great medicine for many) is not a medicine our bodies can handle. I do concede that this is not an excuse for a lack of mask wearing assuming it helps.
“Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of an ultra-Orthodox ambulance service called ZAKA, lost both his parents to the virus in January. He says rabbis urging followers to violate coronavirus regulations have “blood on their hands.”
I know the family personally and they explained to me that he simply LIED since he has a vendetta against rabbis who disagree with him.
His father died after slipping on the floor in the kitchen and hit his head badly. After an operation that failed, he died, but he did NOT have the virus.
LIES like this are spread in the media who do not investigate.
Well said Educated Archy and well said Mendy Moskowitz. This is our way of life. The only way that our religion will have continuity is by sending our kids to school no matter the price, and continuing to gather for prayers and other religious ceremonies.
Another point I would like to highlight is that we will follow our Rabbis through fire and water. This is one of the core beliefs of the Torah, to adhere to the words of the sages whether or not we agree with them. And most of the great Rabbis of our time including Harav Chaim Kanievsky shlita is instructing to keep open all the institutions for education of Jewish studies.
This is our religious rights and in a democratic country like Israel, we should be allowed to practice our religion in freedom without persecution, especially not from our Jewish brothers and sisters.
“Israel’s non-Orthodox majority was outraged at what they saw as contempt for the rules and selective enforcement by authorities.”
Der Sturmer, oops, I mean the AP asked “Israel’s non-Orthodox majority” and they told the AP this response. While they were at the beach and a night club.
While keeping schools and cheder open or not touches on fundementals, the holding of large weddings and the tishim of rebbis is blatant and reckless disregard of your fellow man’s lives. These events can be conducted–mehadrim min hameharim– with 10-20 people and without endangering lives.It reflects a very selfish and immature attitude of of those who attend these super spreader events, and even greater question of the rabbis who are mesader kiddushin and the rebbis for allowing such foolishness.