Who are the ultra-Orthodox community fooling, who are they killing?
By Passover we knew for sure. We were mourning the deaths of our dear family and friends. We were recovering from the virus ourselves.
By MICAH HALPERNThe streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one of the Orthodox neighborhoods in New York City where COVID cases have increased recently, Sept. 23, 2020. Few people are wearing masks. (photo credit: DANIEL MORITZ-RABSON)
When it all began sometime around Purim, we did not understand how deadly this novel virus would be. We couldn’t know. We couldn’t be blamed for not knowing. We didn’t realize that eating together, and singing and dancing together were the easiest ways to transmit this deadly disease. But that was Purim.By Passover we knew for sure. We were mourning the deaths of our dear family and friends. We were recovering from the virus ourselves.Seven weeks later, on Shavuot, COVID-19 was still raging. And on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simhat Torah it still raged.It’s not what we wanted, it’s not what we expected, but it is – as the saying goes – what it is.So why can’t the Jewish world, the haredi, ultra-Orthodox world in particular, accept this hard truth? Why do some people think that they are different from everyone else?As Jews, we know how to abide by rules and regulations: Shabbat, kashrut, the 613 commandments we obey on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. How is it that people either don’t realize or don’t care that by flaunting the rules being imposed on us by medical professionals, they are risking their lives, the lives of people about whom they care, even the lives of people whose names they now know but whose lives they have – because of their own selfish and self-serving needs and desires – altered forever.I’m angry. I’m more than angry. I’m enraged, and I’m embarrassed.My fellow Jews are rioting. They are burning protective masks, mocking social distancing and fighting with police. And the whole world is watching.And it’s been going on this entire pandemic. How can such people – the “People of the Book” – not realize that instead of saving lives as we are instructed, they are causing the loss of lives?Weddings are celebrated and then, about five days later, the parents or grandparents of brides and grooms are testing positive for the virus. They might die. Thousands of people attend a funeral of someone who died from COVID-19, and then hundreds become infected. Again, they might die.
People mourn, sitting shiva – not Zoom shiva but real shiva, where well-wishers enter their homes to share condolences – and the mourners themselves end up sick, hospitalized or dead. A grandmother contracts it from a grandchild. An uncle catches it from a nephew and is admitted to the ICU. It is a deadly cycle.INCONVENIENCING OURSELVES in order to respect and honor the elderly and those most at risk should not be treated as a burden, it should be treated as a gift. When we have the ability to help save lives, why would people – our people – choose instead to engage in acts that will, ultimately and inevitably, take lives? Why?The haredi community believes they are being singled out and even persecuted, in the United States as in Israel, because they are different, because they stand out. They are right. They are being singled out. But not for those reasons. They have thrown the health recommendations out the proverbial window and their number of coronavirus cases has skyrocketed. That’s why.When the number of cases declined in Orlando, Florida – the home of Disney World, “the happiest place on Earth” – until this past week, there has to be a reason. Maybe it’s because it’s Sukkot, and Orlando was the destination of choice for thousands of Jews from haredi communities across the USA.Do they not see the correlation or can they just not accept the truth?The riots I am seeing on television and social media, the open disregard for the law of the land, is the stuff of anarchists and hate groups, not the Orthodox Jewish community. The logic is warped. The violence is real.Synagogues, stores and restaurants in some Orthodox communities are pretending to comply. They are posting large signs on their doors that say “CLOSED,” and in smaller letters, in Hebrew or Yiddish they write, “Use the back door instead,” as if the police don’t know what’s happening. The haredi community might not be fluent in the use of Google Translate, but the police certainly are. And in the end, who are they hurting? Who are they fooling? More importantly, who are they killing? Against whom are they committing the ultimate sin?Doctors and scientists still do not fully understand this virus, but there are some things they know. They know that avoiding large groups save lives. They know that wearing masks save lives. They know that social distancing saves lives. And they know the importance of hand-washing. It’s not rocket science, but it is science.Maybe, just maybe – if we all do our best to follow the advice of the health professionals and others who know what they’re talking about – by next Purim we will be able to sing and dance and dine and rejoice with no fear of spreading the virus.
