Leaders of the ultra-Orthodox community in Melbourne, Australia, have written to the premiere of the Australian state of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, asking him to authorize socially distanced prayer services for the upcoming Yom Kippur holiday amid the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in the state.
Over Rosh Hashanah, several dozen members of the ultra-Orthodox community violated the lockdown and prayed in a synagogue, in an incident which the police were alerted to and led to widespread media coverage and condemnation, including from the mainstream Australian Jewish community.
Victoria has been in a COVID-19 lockdown since August 21 and the stringent restrictions on movement and assembly are set to continue over Yom Kippur, which falls on Wednesday night and Thursday.
Later on Monday, the Herald Sun newspaper reported that Victoria’s Health Department refused the request, saying that exemptions to limits on public or private gatherings could only be made for “end-of-life events.”
In their letter to Andrews on Monday, nine rabbis heading different institutions in the Melbourne ultra-Orthodox community said that the community members had a high rate of vaccination, pointed out the great sanctity of the Yom Kippur holiday and noted that, unlike other religious groups, they could not conduct services remotely by digital means.
Although they were aware that Andrews has consulted with Jewish organizations outside of the ultra-Orthodox community, such as the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and the Rabbinical Council of Victoria, the rabbis said these groups did not properly represent the ultra-Orthodox community.
“Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. For Orthodox Jews, this is the one day in the year that almost every Jew in the world would attend Synagogue without fail,” wrote the rabbis.
“Our members could not fathom the idea of not praying together on this day… We cannot overemphasize the centrality of Yom Kippur, and the tone it sets for one’s entire year. We also pray for our families and the wellbeing of our country, which is the protection from Above that we all need, especially during these difficult times.”
The rabbis also noted that the Victorian Health department recently permitted a Thai boxing event to be held in locked-down Melbourne attended by 69 people, and insisted that Jews’ right to worship should be afforded greater priority than such an event.
“It would be fair to state that religious services in a place of worship, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, are more essential than a Thai boxing event,” they wrote.
“We respectfully request that the Government similarly accommodate the needs of our constituents and formulate a workable protocol allowing us to attend our services.”
Australia would be “the only country in the world, without exception, where no religious services will be allowed on Yom Kippur,” they said.
The rabbis asked Andrews’ “partnership” to formulate “a mutually acceptable framework” to hold prayer services over Yom Kippur “in a Covid-safe manner” with “strict density quotients” – groups of ten men along with those running the service, to be held outdoors if there is no other option.
“Pre-registration, a marshal, masks, distancing, etc are a given,” they added.
The rabbis asked Andrews to respond by Tuesday, given that Yom Kippur begins Wednesday night.