Purim Fever - אַ גאַנץ יאָר - A Gantz Yahr Freilich!

 

This Is What Its Come Down To!

PURIM FEVER - THE UOJ ARCHIVES 

 

Originally Posted August 2007



18 Av 5767 - August 2007..in the goyishe calender..feh... | Mordecai Plut - drektor-

Published Weakly Without Spellcheck

Shame Yisrael Toirah Nutworks

Z'NEWS BULLETIN

Psak Halochoh

ISSUED WITH MESIRAS NEFESH FROM UNDER OUR BEDS IN THE REB MEIER AL Z. HEIMERS MOSHAV ZEKANIM

BS"D, Av 5767

We were appalled and trembling to hear of the terrible breach in our camp in the form of concerts featuring singers and chazanim who sing before men and women in mixed company Rachmono litzlan and even with separate seating, mamash.

Previous gedolei Yisroel totally banned these events - even though there were none, but in their infinite wisdom they knew that there will be many - even where there is separate seating (they can't fool us - we know they sit together in the car). As such we hereby state our combined ignorant and idiot opinion, which is based on irrefutable daas Torah.

A. Attending these performances is totally prohibited, because we say so -- even though we forgot to take our pills for two years at least - could be more - we just don't remember.

B. The prohibition applies to the organizers and the audience, young and old, middle-aged, senile, people in wheelchairs, people who use cains and walkers, the hearing impaired, fagelech, men, women, children, shul candy-men and rebbeim-- regardless of their sexual preferences.

All the more so on the singers and chazanim, who are inducing the masses to sin, mamash - Rachmana litzlan.

C. Newspapers and advertising circulars should not help by advertising these forbidden events, the transgressors call performances. Even the Jewish Press should restrain itself, if at all possible.

D. The singers and chazanim who appear before a mixed audience may not be invited to sing at any wedding or divorce, chap-a-nosh at the smorgasboard, mooch a free meal, take home the flowers, switch to a newer Borsalino at the coat-check room, steal a bencher, or take home a stranger's wife; nor can any event at which they participate be advertised, including tefillos and so-called kosher events, unsupervised fress Pesach events; in order to avoid lending a hand to these transgressors who we consider to be rishaim gemurim, like nothing ever before in klal Yisroel, ever, ever, aver, erva.

May Hashem Yisborach, in His great mercy and kindness, bring them to do teshuvah before Him - and us - by supporting Kupat H'air, and may we merit the eternal Redemption (not the phony Chabad kind), immediately - before the Kolko trial - azuz yimolei sechok peanuts...., vayihee b'yemai Achasvarush....

Signing for the sake of the sanctity, holiness and purity of our people, with trembling hands, spittle dripping out of our mouths, and with soiled diapers....

Yehuda Kolko

Lipa Margulies

Ephraim Shapiro

Shea Fishman

Moshe Eisemann

Matis Weinberg

Shalom Tendler

Mordecai Tendler

Aron Tendler

Grepsel Hamburger

Avrohom Mondrowitz

Ephraim Bryks

Aron Twerski

Avi Shafran

Marvin Shick

Avrohom Leizerowitz

Heshy Nussbaum

Shlomo Mandel

Yehuda Nussbaum

Simcha Kaufman

Shmuel Kaminetzky

Yaakov Perlow

Gershon Tannenbaum

Moshe Heinemann

Yaakov Aryeh Alter Chaya

Yissochor Dov Petzel A. Kleiner

Pinchos Nisht-Arein Gegangen

Hertz Frankel

Yitzchak Kaduri

Shmuel Halevi Wosner

Yisroel Hazmana Belsky

Mendel Haganiv Epstein

Moshe Hachazir Finkel

Dovid Ha'truckdriver Cohen

Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz

Moshe Chaim Kurva Ben Gil Arayus

Leibish Flynt

Chaim H. Hefner

Lipa Geldwerth

David (Ben Shmuel) Berkowitz

Lipa Brenner

Baruch Lanner

Chaim Pinchos Sheinberg

Bernard (Berish)Law

C. Yonah Mahoney

Tuvyah Ted Bundy

Tzvi Elimelech Zona

Dovid Twersky

Shmuel Auerbach

Sholom Klass

Marvin Hier

Israel Singer

Philip Berg

Moshe Sherer

Shabbsai Tzvi

The Rabbis of Baltimore & Ner Israel Rabbinical College agree with above clowns


MEGILLAS SHTUYOT FROM MONSEY CRACKPOTS!


UOJ EXCLUSIVE - THE VIDEO THAT LEIB TROPPER SENT TO THE RABBIS OF MONSEY:

 

 

 READ THE COMMENTS - SOME GREAT ONES:

http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2007/08/this-is-what-its-come-down-to.html

The Headline Should Read - Antivaxxer Rabbi Permanently Locked Up In a Philadelphia Nut House - Makes His Agudah Convention Keynote Address Under His Bed

 

Byberry Insane Asylum – Philadelphia

https://americansuburbx.com/2015/05/byberry-mental-hospital-house-of-horrors.html

COVID-denying antivaxxer doctor permanently loses medical license

 

Arieh Avni, who recently said ‘anyone who administers a vaccine is, to me, like Mengele,’ has reportedly forged immunization certificates and mask exemptions for pay

Arieh Avni.

The Health Ministry announced Tuesday that an outspoken doctor who denies the coronavirus, opposes vaccination and has reportedly forged virus immunization certificates has permanently lost his medical license.

Arieh Avni owns a website popular among the Israeli antivaxxer community where he has published a multitude of articles spreading conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and Israel’s vaccination drive, as well as repeatedly slandering Israeli health officials. He also runs the Facebook page “Correct Medicine: Dr. Arieh Avni,” where he writes widely shared posts spreading his theories.

Avni recently said that “anyone who administers a vaccine is, to me, like Mengele,” referring to the notorious Nazi death camp doctor.

According to Channel 13, Avni had recently opened a clinic in Bnei Brak where he continued to spread misinformation on the virus and offered forged immunization certificates and exemptions from wearing masks for pay.

Illustrative: An Israeli receives a COVID-19 vaccine injection at a mobile vaccine station at the beach in Tel Aviv

According to the ruling of retired judge Amnon Strashnov, who was appointed by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein to oversee the case, Avni poses a danger to the public.

“There is no doubt that the harsh and blatant statements of [Avni] in articles he published on his website, on Facebook and recently also on YouTube, against the vaccination against the coronavirus, constitue a real danger to public safety and health,” Strashnov wrote.

“Add to this his unbridled, blatant and baseless remarks toward the medical community and the heads of the Health Ministry — which go far beyond what is reasonable and permissible in the context of freedom of expression, which is an important and protected value in any democratic society — and you have a clear prescription for total anarchy, all while he boasts the title of ‘doctor,'” the ruling said.

Vaccine hesitancy and skepticism have become a growing concern in recent weeks as Israel’s world-leading inoculation campaign has slowed.

Dozens attended a protest in Tel Aviv last week against “coercion,” a label widely used by antivaxxers.

The protest featured a number of people not wearing masks, as well as comparisons between Israel’s vaccination campaign and Nazi laws, with some wearing yellow Stars of David saying “not vaccinated” meant to resemble the ones that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust.

Israelis wearing yellow Stars of David saying ‘not vaccinated’ protest in Tel Aviv

Earlier this month, Facebook announced that it had removed a major Israeli group promoting conspiracy theories about the vaccines that had urged its thousands of members to schedule appointments to inoculate and then to cancel them at the last minute, forcing HMOs to throw out unused doses.

Facebook said that the group violated its community standards regarding fake news.

The removal of the group from the social media platform came after the Health Ministry reportedly asked Facebook to take down the posts of anti-vaxxers bragging about their exploits. The social media giant has pledged to keep anti-vaxxers and those spreading fake vaccination information off its platform.

The group, which had over 12,000 members, featured false information about the virus and the vaccines’ efficacy and safety, alongside conspiracy videos and efforts to thwart the country’s vaccination drive.

Days later, the social media giant deleted another group associated with popular Israeli rabbi Amnon Yitzhak that peddled fake news about the pandemic and the immunizations.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/covid-denying-antivaxxer-doctor-permanently-loses-medical-license/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2021-02-24&utm_medium=email

The Yemenite Children Did NOT "Disappear" --- Ben-Gurion & Bernard Bergman from New York Kidnapped them and Sold Them To The Highest Bidders!

 

Government set to express ‘regret,’ compensate for disappeared Yemenite children

 

Cabinet to approve NIS 162 million settlement for families whose kids vanished after arriving in the country in 1950s; but there will be no official apology for what happened

Jews of Aden, Yemen, awaiting evacuation to Israel on November 1, 1949.

The government on Monday was preparing to approve a compensation plan for the families of immigrants to Israel during the state’s formative years, who say their children and siblings were taken from them by the authorities when they arrived in the country in the 1950s and then disappeared.

Known as the Yemenite children affair, the issue involves over 1,000 families — mostly immigrants from Yemen, but also dozens from the Balkans, North Africa, and other Middle Eastern countries — who have alleged their children were kidnapped from Israeli hospitals and put up for adoption, sometimes abroad.

The official explanation is that the children died while under medical care, but many families do not believe this.

Though the state will express regret and understanding of the suffering caused to the families, there will be no official apology for what remains one of the most controversial and sensitive issues in Israeli society.

The absence of an official apology drew criticism from those who have assisted the affected families as they’ve sought answers to what happened to their children, as well as criticism because the terms of the plan exclude many of those who were part of the saga. Families claim the children were taken away from their parents by authorities, who never told them of their fate. They argue that the incidents were not an assortment of unconnected cases but rather reflected policy at the time.

Under the terms of the plan, families will receive NIS 150,000 ($46,000) for each child whose death was made known to them at the time. A sum of NIS 200,000 ($61,000) will be paid for each child whose fate is unknown.

In total, the government will allocate NIS 162 million ($46,600,000) for the compensation plan, which was first reported by Channel 12 News on Sunday.

Only families whose cases were already reviewed by one of the three state committees set up over the years to investigate the issue will be eligible to apply for compensation. Requests must be filed between June 1, 2021, and November 30, 2021.

A committee will be established to oversee distribution of the compensation money.

There are 1,050 families that qualify for compensation, according to the Ynet website. Receiving compensation will be dependent on a written commitment to not file any further lawsuits on the matter as well as to close and waive any existing legal action.

A Yemenite Jewish family travels to a refugee camp set up by the Joint Distribution Committee near Aden. (GPO/Public domain)

 

The proposal includes a declaration that “the government of Israel regrets the events that happened in the early days of the state and recognizes the suffering of families whose children were part of this painful issue.”

“It is not in the power of a financial plan to provide a remedy to the suffering caused to families,” the declaration notes. “However, the State of Israel hopes that it will be able to assist in the process of rehabilitation and healing of the social wound that this affair has created in Israeli society.”

The compensation plan came against the background of several lawsuits by families regarding the matter.

Earlier this year the state declared the cases invalid under the statute of limitations, though Supreme Court has yet to rule on the matter.

The nonprofit Amram Association, one of the leading organizations helping the families, said in a statement that the plan “is a sought-for step toward the families; however, it is only partial and does not provide a proper and comprehensive response to the case.”

The decision “is missing the most significant component in the process of taking responsibility — an official apology from the state,” Amram said.

“It should be noted that the current decision was made without dialogue with the families and associations active on the issue, and without this component, a process of correction and healing is not possible.”

The group also criticized what it said were “substantial failures such as arbitrary and exclusionary separation between families who have applied to committees, and are entitled to apply for compensation, and families who have not done so.”

It called on the government to find a more comprehensive solution, saying “many of the families did not approach the committees out of distrust of the establishment,” or for other reasons.

Illustrative: Children being airlifted from Yemen in Operation Magic Carpet, in front of an Alaskan Airlines plane.

Disputed by scholars and seemingly refuted by three state commissions that examined the matter and concluded that most of the children had died while being given medical care, the case has kept resurfacing, not least because most of the families were not given their children’s bodies or informed of their burial places.

Families have noted that many of the children’s death certificates were riddled with errors, and most of the missing children had army draft notices sent to their families 18 years after their alleged deaths. There have also been sporadic cases of adopted children who were able to confirm, through DNA tests, that they were from Yemenite families who were told they had died.

A 2001 report by the Cohen-Kedmi state commission on the issue concluded that there was no evidence of a systematic or state-sponsored effort to remove the children from their families, and that the large majority had died as the families were told — but also that 69 children disappeared without a trace from state hospitals and other institutions, whose representatives then lied to the families about their fate.

The claims have also been tied into the neglect and marginalization with which many Muslim-world Jewish immigrants were greeted when they arrived in an Israel controlled at the time by an Ashkenazi Jewish elite.

 

The Disappearance of Yemenite Babies During the Aliyah of 1949-1954...An Ugly History of What Happens To Jewish Children When There Is No Accountability..."Especially By People Who Call Themselves Religious"...

 READ:

http://unorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2005/11/bigger-bastardpart-two-yemenite.html

 http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-disappearance-of-yemenite-babies.html

https://www.timesofisrael.com/government-set-to-express-regret-compensate-for-disappeared-yemenite-children/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2021-02-22&utm_medium=email

Your actions have prolonged the lockdown which is killing businesses and destroying families. You have needlessly increased the load on the public health care system, endangering the lives of the entire country.

I now understand that your goal was not to keep Jews Jewish – but to keep haredim - haredi

HAREDIM RALLY against coronavirus restrictions in Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim

 

 

No matter how much we Modern Orthodox Jews and Religious Zionists write manifestos and hold conferences showing how our way of integration is superior to your Torah-only view, when we sit down with a pen and paper to draw “a Jew,” he isn’t wearing jeans and T-shirt, but rather he is wearing a beard and peyos (hair sidelocks) and looks like you. When asked to imagine a rabbi, he isn’t clean shaven with khaki pants; he looks like you. We still look over our shoulders to you as some sort of barometer that we haven’t gone too far with our embrace of secular culture, that we haven’t strayed too far from Yisrael Saba (the spirit of the Jewish people throughout their generations). Your commitment to Torah and Jewish continuity is unbounded. 

 

When I was a kid in the 1980’s, I needed tutoring in Talmud. My parents used to take me to the local haredi yeshiva, The Yeshiva of Staten Island, to learn with the boys there. I must have stuck out like a sore thumb, but I was welcomed by the students very warmly. Students went out of their way to introduce themselves to me and get to know me. These boys would walk miles to our small local synagogue to help boost our struggling minyan. There was a soda machine there that did not accept dollar bills at the time. In those days a can of Pepsi cost 50 cents. There was an empty coffee can there filled with quarters. You would put your dollar in the can and take out four quarters to make change to put in the machine. I remember being shocked that you can leave a can of money out and that there was no fear that someone would take it. But then I thought, “Oh! This is a yeshiva! Of course everyone here is honest!” That was what characterized a “black hat” or haredi yeshiva in my mind: integrity and love of their fellow Jews.

 

As a rabbi and educator myself, I can unequivocally state that I wouldn’t be an observant Jew today if not for the haredi education and influence I received. They were quite literally the determining factor in my understanding of my place as a Jew in this world and my relationship with God. My own decision to be a rabbi and teacher was born out of the need to be the next link in the chain of Torah that you represented to me. Every student of mine is in debt to the haredi rabbis and institutions that have formed my soul.

 

But either I misunderstood you all these years or something has profoundly changed. I had thought that your commitment to Torah was to preserve Am Yisrael (the nation of Israel). I thought that your commitment to Jewish continuity was to the whole. I now understand during this terrible pandemic that your goal was not to keep Jews Jewish but to keep haredim haredi. You have demonstrated time and again by both your actions and inactions that you completely abandoned the idea of Klal Yisrael (the entire Jewish people). You are so afraid of losing your sons that you sacrificed your fathers. 

 

Your community knew the risks of opening your schools and holding mass weddings/funerals and yet you insisted on doing so to preserve your haredi way of life: not Judaism, mind you, but your haredi way of life. The irony of the funerals being held for victims of COVID-19 was completely lost upon you. You refused to give real credence to the experts in public health so as not to give any authority to them in the eyes of your children. You could not and will not allow a secular person, or even a non-haredi Orthodox Jew serve as any source of authority in your community. So afraid are you of losing your children, that you dismiss anything that doesn’t come from your camp to make sure your children think there is nothing outside of their haredi community to look for.

 

Your actions have prolonged the lockdown which is killing businesses and destroying families. You have needlessly increased the load on the public health care system, endangering the lives of the entire country.

 

Why do you not feel a responsibility to the nation as a whole? Why have you abdicated Am Yisrael in favor of your own communal needs? Your refusal to enlist in the army has already made you a target for not caring about the nation as a whole; why are you exacerbating the situation during this pandemic?

 

I just paused to reread my words and can see that they can be read with an angry and accusatory tone. I do not mean them that way. I offer them in soft sadness and with an offer to please correct my understanding if I am wrong. There are whole political parties here that refuse to sit in a government with you because they too see things this way. People see you on the streets and instead of getting a warm fuzzy feeling of meeting a beloved relative, they have fear and scorn for you. And because of your distinct look their scorn and fear is for Torah and Judaism as well. This cannot go on. I care too much about you and too much about Judaism to remain silent.

 

I am acutely aware that Modern Orthodoxy isn’t perfect. I can point to many problems in our community that our embrace of secular culture has caused. I see our failures and can see how having televisions in our homes, going to the army and university alienate some of our youth from religion.

 

 But we believe the good far outweighs the bad. And our ability to admit to the problems allows us an avenue to address them.

 

Can you admit you have failures and that your way of life isn’t perfect either? Can you honestly say that the good outweighs the bad? I am not asking you to answer me, I am only asking that you answer yourselves. But what I am asking is for you to please be more sensitive to the rest of us and start taking responsibility for others outside your camp as well. 

The writer holds a doctorate in Jewish philosophy and teaches in post-high-school yeshivot and midrashot in Jerusalem.

 

https://www.jpost.com/judaism/a-rabbis-open-letter-to-his-haredi-brethren-659384

Regarding vaccination refusers – the matter must be judged in light of its criminal aspect, and in the sphere of damages/torts. Firstly, if it is permissible, or necessary, to force them to be vaccinated against their will, or to punish them for their refusal, as a consequence of the criminal aspect of their refusal.

 

Response to the question: To vaccinate or not to vaccinate?

 

Israel Prize Laureate in Medical Ethics and M.D. on: Halakhic and ethical factors in vaccinating against corona and the issue of sanctions for vaccine refusers.

Tags: Vaccination Rabbi Prof. Avraham Steinberg epidemic

 

 

 

Fundamental background facts:

1. COVID-19 is an international epidemic which has caused innumerable deaths the world over, including several thousands of our brothers in Israel. In addition, the epidemic has caused severe illness and ongoing health problems, even among those who have recovered. The epidemic has also caused psychological damage, and extensive damage economically, in the world of education, and in many social spheres.

2. To date, all of the methods employed to contain the epidemic have failed. The disease continues to spread and to bring about widespread death and illness.

3. The vaccinations manufactured to provide protection against the Coronavirus, and which have passed the accepted stages of research, and which have received the accreditation of the most authorized regulatory agencies in the world, have proven to be extremely effective, not only during experimental trial, but also during actual implementation millions of people in various countries around the world, and especially in Israel. Furthermore, they have proven to be very safe, with only mild and passing negative after-effects.

4. All the claims of conspiracy, and the alarmist fake news surrounding the vaccines, are unfounded, fake news, and a person should not take them into account. While there do remain several open questions, they don’t carry enough weight to avoid vaccination.

5. The people who refuse to be vaccinated cause damage to themselves, since they are liable to become very sick, and even to die. In addition, they cause damage to others, because they are likely to infect many people, both a very small percentage amongst those who have already been vaccinated, and amongst those who were not allowed to be vaccinated, whether because of some existing medical problem, or because they lacked permission, such as children under the age of 16 (note: the vaccine has not been tested for under 16 year olds).

Hence, halakhically it is an obligation upon everyone to be vaccinated based on the commandment, “You shall safeguard yourselves exceedingly,” (Devarim, 4:15), ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם and based on the imperative to avoid harm to others.

In light of these factors, the Halakhic and ethical conclusions regarding people who refuse vaccination are as follows:

1. Regarding vaccination refusers – the matter must be judged in light of its criminal aspect, and in the sphere of damages/torts. Firstly, if it is permissible, or necessary, to force them to be vaccinated against their will, or to punish them for their refusal, as a consequence of the criminal aspect of their refusal. Secondly, it is permissible or necessary to impose sanctions upon them, or to deny them benefits, or interaction with the public, as a consequence of the aspect of damage caused by their refusal.

In regard to forced vaccination or punishments, it seems that from the principle of the law (Ikar HaDin) in the realm of Halakha, there is room for compulsion based on whether the condition is such that the epidemic is severe with grave mortality and sickness involved, this stemming both from the commandment to carefully guard one’s health, and in order to prevent them from spreading the disease to others, thereby endangering lives.

In practice, it seems this approach will not be implemented in democratic states which respect the autonomy of the individual, even at the price of personal injury to himself. Nonetheless, the leaders of these countries, and those who determine the law, are obligated to make a great educational effort to explain the vital importance of the matter, medically, ethically, and in light of the Halakha – to persuade people to be vaccinated, and to negate the various false rumors opposing vaccination.

2. Regarding sanctions and restrictions on interacting with the public, and concerning the incentive of benefits, it seems clear that this is permissible, and even an obligation of the government to enact such measures.

That is to say, it is permissible to prevent vaccination refusers to enter places that are not vital to life, and to grant entry permits to public places (such as hotels, restaurants, places of entertainment, and the like; and even to synagogues and schools), only to those who have been vaccinated, or to those who were infected and recovered. It is also permissible to prevent vaccination refusers from interacting with the public, including teachers, policemen, store owners, and the like.

And it is certainly permitted for private companies and private businesses to allow entry to their premises exclusively to those who can prove that they have been vaccinated, or have recovered from coronavirus.

3. It also must be noted that in the realm of damages/torts, a vaccination refuser, during a spreading and uncontained epidemic, can be legally sued placed under legal obligation if a person is infected and becomes ill because of the said person who refused to be vaccinated, and the person who became ill can bring a damage suit against the person who infected him.

4. However, it must be noted that one cannot withhold medical treatment to a vaccination refuser if he becomes ill with Corona, even if he could have prevented himself from getting sick. This is the customary way of relating to any sick person who caused his or her own illness, such as chronic smokers, alcoholics, and the like. In the sphere of Halakha, we do not withhold treatment from someone who was injured while desecrating the Sabbath in public, or similar situations.

Translation from Hebrew: Tzvi Fishman

Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg serves as Director of the Medical Ethics Unit & Chairman, IRB Committee, and is Senior Child Neurologist at Shaare Zedek Hospital; Chief Editor of the 27 volume Head of the Talmudic Encyclopedia, and author of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics. He is an Israel Prize laureate.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/296932

Large families. Group prayer. Funerals with hundreds of mourners. Social distancing is the antithesis of ultra-Orthodox Jewish life.

The coronavirus is devastating Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities. They represent 12.6 percent of the population, but 28 percent of infections.

‘How Many Funerals Will Come Out of This One?’

 

JERUSALEM — The crowd surged and swirled, like the eddies of an ocean. Crushed against one another, hundreds of men stretched their arms toward the rabbi’s body, trying to touch the bier in a display of religious devotion.

It was the height of Israel’s third lockdown, in an ultra-Orthodox district near the heart of Jerusalem. Gatherings were banned. Masks were mandatory. Infection rates were spiking, particularly among ultra-Orthodox groups like this one.

Yet here were hundreds of mourners, most with mouths uncovered, attending an illegal funeral procession for a revered rabbi who had himself died of the coronavirus.

For these deeply devout Jews, attendance was a religious and personal duty. To briefly grip the rabbi’s bier, and symbolically assist his passage from this world, was a sign of profound respect for the dead.

But for secular Israeli society, and even for some within the ultra-Orthodox world, this kind of mass gathering suggested a disrespect for the living.

“What is more important?” wondered Esti Shushan, an ultra-Orthodox women’s rights activist, after seeing pictures of the gathering. “To go to funerals and study Torah? Or to stay alive?”

It is a question that channels one of the central conflicts of the pandemic in Israel: the spiraling tension between the Israeli mainstream and the growing ultra-Orthodox minority, an insular group of highly religious Jews, also known as Haredim, who eschew many trappings of modernity in favor of intensive religious study.

When the pandemic began, one Haredi leader promised that adherence to Jewish law would save his followers from the virus......

 BRILLIANT REPORTING: TAKE THE TIME TO READ AND VISUALIZE THE DEPRAVITY!

 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/17/world/middleeast/israel-orthodox-jews-haredim.html

"The details of this mad delusion needn’t concern us here—what is more interesting, for me, are the structural similarities to messianic eschatologies in both Judaism and Christianity that continue to inform its adherents, especially evangelicals and Haredim."

Ends To A Means

 

Why weren’t Haredi Jews troubled by Trump’s conspiracy-mongering?

Guest Post - Professor Shaul Magid

 

 

Many months after the presidential election, it is quite clear that Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, support for President Trump was strong. The Satmar enclave of Kiryas Joel in Rockland County, New York, voted 99% for Trump in 2020. In Haredi sections of Borough Park, Brooklyn, the numbers were about 90% for Trump. The story of Haredi support for Trump, or Haredi Trumpism, is very complex, and no one theory suffices to capture this phenomenon. Some have focused on Trump’s polices toward Israel, while others point to his advocacy of certain Haredi causes; for example, he granted clemency to Shlomo Rubashkin, former CEO of the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse, who had been convicted on 86 counts of fraud, money laundering, etc., and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Others say this is an example of Haredi Americanization, even a new kind of Hasidic American nationalism. It is understandable that many in that community would overlook Trump’s rather obvious moral failings if his presidency benefited them. For most of the 20th century, Haredi Jews, like many other American ethnic groups, acted transactionally in relation to politics; political leaders were never expected to be paragons of righteousness.

But what about the conspiracism that undergirded Trump’s presidency—from the Obama “birtherism” to his wink and nod to QAnon? Why wasn’t that a problem, especially in a culture that reveres the Yiddishe kup, the good Jewish head? I want to suggest that conspiracism may be less of a problem for traditional adherents of Judaism and Christianity than to those more liberal religionists who occupy a post-secular world. Conspiracy theories, even if they are not yours, may be less alarming when your own religious belief system shares certain structural principles with them.

QAnon is perhaps today the most widespread conspiracism. Recent discussions of QAnon argue that it is an emerging “hyper-real” religion, a form of religious apocalypticism, a belief that the reality we see conceals a subterranean plan where a demonic force threatens our society—and a “chosen one,” in this case Trump, will emerge to uncover the “deep state” and save us from destruction. For anyone conversant in Jewish and Christian messianism, this is not an unfamiliar story. QAnon’s stories of child sex-trafficking and other nefarious acts simply fill in the demonic nature of the powers and principalities that corrupt the world.

The details of this mad delusion needn’t concern us here—what is more interesting, for me, are the structural similarities to messianic eschatologies in both Judaism and Christianity that continue to inform its adherents, especially evangelicals and Haredim. Haredim know little about QAnon. But the structural notion of conspiracism more generally is not foreign to them. In fact, it is embedded in the system of their religious beliefs. God appears to a tribe of ex-slaves in the Sinai desert led by an ex-Egyptian aristocrat, chooses them among all peoples, and then hands them tablets of the law that they must follow. And one day in the future, maybe soon, God will bring them back from exile for a bloody global conflagration to fulfill their destiny in their homeland. Or try this: Jesus is crucified and buried, and then his disciples discover three days later that his grave is empty, and he appears to them as an apparition telling them that he will return. The Mormons would say this: Joseph Smith, while praying in the woods one night in 1823, found golden plates, a secret message from God, that became The Book of Mormon.

We could go on. These claims are believed by millions of people. Yet none of them are inherently more believable than QAnon’s claim of a demonic deep state.

This is not to say that these religions inspire the same actions as the kind of conspiracies that we find today, which helped prepare the ground for the tumult at the Capitol—although they sometimes do. The Maccabees did storm the Jerusalem Temple in a bloody insurrection to take it back from Seleucids in 164 BCE. And Jewish groups did stage an unsuccessful insurrection against Rome in 66 CE that finally ended with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. And many Christians believed in blood libel accusations that Jews used Christian blood to make matzo for Passover. Judaism and Christianity both have certain inclinations toward what scholars call an “apocalyptic epistemology,” a belief that the fulfillment of prophecy will result in the upending of society as we know it. Much of this epistemology is embedded in these religions’ messianic ideologies; part of the appeal of these religions concerns theodicy, how to explain why suffering comes upon those who believe themselves righteous—including through the promise of vindication and restoration. And many of those messianic ideologies were born during a time of great social upheaval. QAnon makes similar claims about today’s America as purportedly run secretly by an ultra-left “cabal” intent on undermining America’s (white) heritage. It is no coincidence that this all happened at a time of a global pandemic as well as a time when white America is slowly losing its majority status.

The histories of Judaism and Christianity are littered with messianic claimants and calculations of the end time that don’t pan out. But the belief in the inevitable end time is not abandoned. In most cases, religious communities self-correct to absorb the failure of prophecy while maintaining covenantal coherence. Religions survive in part by explaining such failures within their internal system of beliefs. Rabbinic Judaism is one self-correction: The Temple was destroyed, but this was God’s plan. The Second Coming another: Jesus will return. Some forms of Judaism and Christianity try to do away with apocalyptic epistemology by naturalizing it, claiming that the hoped-for end will be natural and peaceful.

But those naturalizing tendencies often do not take root for long. Apocalyptic thinking reemerges in moments of crisis. False messianism is often the form it takes, an addiction that is hard to shake.

For many of its early architects, Zionism was “messianic” in the naturalized sense. At the time, Jews were often deemed “abnormal” because were a people without a land, and Zionism sought to reestablish Jewish sovereignty in a homeland as part of a process of normalization. While that project had enormous success, apocalyptic tendencies in the tradition very quickly began to rise to the surface, especially in times of turmoil and change, yielding the expectation that the secular state would soon reveal the divine hand that will yield a messianic age. Or that God used sinners (secular Zionists) to do God’s redemptive work. This thinking was informed by the Jewish mystical tradition, which is driven by a transformative theology that often feeds apocalyptic thinking. Things are not what they seem.

And of course this apocalypticism is seen in dispensationalist Christianity as well, which is why the symmetry between Jewish Zionist messianism and Christian Zionist dispensationalism is a natural fit. It is no accident that evangelical John Hagee gave the invocation at the U.S. Embassy’s move to Jerusalem. As Trump said afterward, “I did this for the evangelicals.” On one (Zionist) Christian reading, the Jews may think they are exercising their right of self-determination, but they are really pawns, paving the way for the return of Christ (including the predicted end-time destruction of those Jews who refuse to accept Christ). But (Jewish) Zionists don’t care, because for them it is the Christians who are the pawns in the story of their own heroic redemption. Each is conspiratorial in its own way. And they can do business together.

Haredim may not all be Zionists—most are not—but they are increasingly pro-Israel, and they view Israel as an important part of their religious identity, for complex reasons. But setting aside the Israel question, Haredi support for Trump retains some of that underlying feeling of an unseen plan unfolding in unconventional ways. False messianism has plagued Judaism for its entire history. And each time, the rising messianic figure was never a conventional righteous person, but always someone who seemed the opposite. The 17th-century false messiah Sabbatai Zevi was not a righteous scholar but a largely unknown, strange, and psychologically troubled figure of questionable learning and pedigree—whose audacious claim of messianic prophecy stirred almost an entire Jewish population. In the very time between his first messianic proclamation in 1648 and his abrupt conversion to Islam in 1666, much of the Jewish world believed him to be the messiah and prepared for a collective return to Palestine. After his conversion to Islam, many were traumatized, and a smaller group of followers developed an ideology whereby his conversion was part of his messianic vocation. He seemed like he was now a Muslim, but the conversion was, well, “fake news.” Some converted with him; others remained Jewish but became clandestine Sabbatean followers (they called themselves “the believers,” maminim); and some radical circles determined the time was ripe for sinning as a final act of redemptive behavior. What looked like a sin was really a mitzvah. Many returned to their traditional lives. And yet movements like Hasidism, now a part of normative Judaism and a foundation of Haredi Judaism, emerged in part through Sabbatean influence.

Meanwhile, for QAnon Trump is a kind of messianic savior who will cleanse the country from the evil of the deep state; for some of his followers, he is better understood as a pre-messianic leader who will usher in the return of Christ. Signs at the siege upon the Capitol read “Jesus is my savior,” “Trump is my resident.” The juxtaposition was not accidental. I have been told by Haredim that Trump is like Cyrus the Great or the conqueror Alexander. In Jewish lore, Cyrus liberated the Jews from the Babylonian exile and facilitated the rebuilding of the Second Jerusalem Temple. He was viewed as a great gentile leader who helped Jews fulfill their covenantal destiny. Why Trump is viewed by some Haredi Trumpists as a modern-day Cyrus is not wholly clear. Moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is hardly Cyrus-like in scope. Nevertheless, Haredim have come to believe that Trump is a transitional gentile leader who will change the course of the country in their favor and will alter Jewish history.

Conspiratorial rhetoric may have moved many Haredim from transactional political actors to citizens who viewed Trump as a kind of Cyrus figure. Reagan was arguably better for the Haredim than Trump, but he never inspired the same kind of enthusiasm. The support for Reagan never reached that level; his support stayed largely in the realm of the transactional.

This is not false messianism. But I am suggesting that there is good reason why this conspiratorial thinking has not been as dissonant for Haredim as it is for many other Jews. Trump’s use of conspiratorial thinking has become absorbed in some way in the Haredi world even though most Haredim don’t know, or care to know, anything about Q. The more traditional Jewish belief structure comprises elements that, while not conspiratorial per se, function under similar assumptions: reality is not what it seems; things could change very quickly; a sovereign (God) is running the world; there is a plan which is often unseen; a savior will arise to lead the battle against evil. And conspiracy theories, like religions, are not falsifiable.

If QAnon is an emerging religion, as Bradley Onishi has suggested, Haredi Jews will not be a part of it. They have their own apocalyptic epistemology built into Judaism itself—one that often lies dormant but is never extinguished. Times like this rekindle its flame, and inspire action, as a response to a precarious moment. A pandemic has ravaged Haredi communities, and an odd gentile political leader, with an Orthodox Jewish child, who stokes fears of “us versus them,” and shows fidelity to Israel, has arisen. Not quite messianism. But close. One of things conspiracism does is question what it means to “know” something. It introduces epistemic confusion. It destabilizes the real by claiming the real is hiding the truth. This is not new to certain forms of Jewish belief. In Jewish apocalyptic thinking, such confusion lies at its the very core of its understanding of knowledge. To question the “real” and offer an alternative narrative is deeply embedded in Jewish thinking. The “real” might tell you that Jews are an inconsequential people, and that God has abandoned them. But the truth is that they are chosen. Denying that is heresy: “fake news.”

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/haredi-jews-trump-conspiracies

My apologies to Shaul, I could not resist throwing this in :-)

Paul Mendlowitz

May otrdSltu 0  ·

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More Undisputable Evidence of Trump's Love for the Jews!

 

What the 95% actually means is that vaccinated people had a 95% lower risk of getting COVID-19 compared with the control group participants, who weren't vaccinated!

 

COVID-19 vaccines: What does 95% efficacy actually mean?

It doesn't mean 5% of vaccinated people get infected.

 

You have likely heard that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine efficacy is 95%, Moderna's is 94% and Johnson & Johnson's is 66%. But what do these numbers actually mean? 

It's not just an academic question. How people understand these numbers affects how they think about the vaccine, whether they get it and how they behave after getting it, all of which have implications for the pandemic on a larger scale.

So how should people interpret these numbers?

Related: Quick guide: COVID-19 vaccines and how they work

"I think it's important for people to understand that this is an extremely effective vaccine," said Brianne Barker, a virologist at Drew University in New Jersey, referring to the Pfizer vaccine. "This is much more effective than you might think."

One common misunderstanding is that 95% efficacy means that in the Pfizer clinical trial, 5% of vaccinated people got COVID. But that's not true; the actual percentage of vaccinated people in the Pfizer (and Moderna) trials who got COVID-19 was about a hundred times less than that: 0.04%. 

What the 95% actually means is that vaccinated people had a 95% lower risk of getting COVID-19 compared with the control group participants, who weren't vaccinated. In other words, vaccinated people in the Pfizer clinical trial were 20 times less likely than the control group to get COVID-19. 

That makes the vaccine  "one of the most effective vaccines that we have," Barker told Live Science. For comparison, the two-dose measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is 97% effective against measles and 88% effective against mumps, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The seasonal flu vaccine is between 40% and 60% effective (it varies from year to year, depending on that year's vaccine and flu strains), but it still prevented an estimated 7.5 million cases of the flu in the U.S. during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to the CDC.

So, if efficacy means some percent fewer cases of COVID-19, what counts as a "case of COVID"? Both Pfizer and Moderna defined a case as having at least one symptom (however mild) and a positive COVID-19 test. Johnson & Johnson defined a "case" as having a positive COVID-19 test plus at least one moderate symptom (such as shortness of breath, abnormal blood oxygen levels or abnormal respiratory rate) or at least two milder symptoms (such as fever, cough, fatigue, headache, or nausea). Someone with a moderate case of COVID-19 by this definition could either be mildly affected or be incapacitated and feel pretty sick for a few weeks.

Barker cautions that it’s tricky to directly compare efficacy between the Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Moderna vaccines, because the clinical trials happened in different geographic areas with different populations, and at slightly different time points in the pandemic when different variants of COVID-19 were circulating. “There were more people who had the B117 [U.K. variant] or other types of variants during the time of the Johnson & Johnson trial than during the Moderna trial,” she said. 

And none of the three vaccine trials looked at all for asymptomatic COVID-19. "All these efficacy numbers are protection from having symptoms, not protection from being infected," Barker said. (Some early studies hint that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines also reduce the number of viral particles in a person's body, called viral load, and the likelihood of testing positive at all, which would cut transmission. Still, because we don't yet know that for sure,  people "can't throw away their mask" once they're vaccinated, Barker said.)

— 14 coronavirus myths busted by science

But all three trials also used a second, potentially more important, definition of "cases." What we care most about is protecting people from the worst outcomes of COVID-19: hospitalization and death. So Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson also measured how their vaccines performed against severe disease (which meant severely affected heart or respiratory rate, the need for supplemental oxygen, ICU admission, respiratory failure or death). 

All three vaccines were 100% effective at preventing severe disease six weeks after the first dose (for Moderna) or seven weeks after the first dose (for Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, the latter of which requires only one dose). Zero vaccinated people in any of the trials were hospitalized or died of COVID-19 after the vaccines had fully taken effect. 

"We are incredibly lucky with how effective these vaccines have been," Barker said.

Originally published on Live Science.

https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-vaccine-efficacy-explained.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

What To Do When Your Godol Is A Crackpot? Get Vaccinated!

 "crackpot (plural crackpots) (informal) An eccentric, crazy or foolish person. A kook. Synonyms: crank, crazy, kook, live one, nut ball, nutbag, nutbar, nutcase, nutter; see also Thesaurus:strange person, Thesaurus:mad person."

 

'92% drop in serious COVID cases among vaccinated'

 

Israeli health care provider Clalit reports massive reduction in symptomatic COVID cases among vaccinated population.

Israel’s massive coronavirus vaccination campaign has significantly cut the rates of symptomatic COVID infections among the vaccinated population, according to a study by the Clalit health care provider.

The study, which was released Sunday evening, found that the rate of symptomatic coronavirus infections was cut by 94% among the vaccinated population.

In addition, the study found that the number of seriously ill COVID patients was cut by 92% among the vaccinated population.

A total of 1.2 million people were tested for the study, including 600,000 vaccinated individuals and 600,000 unvaccinated people.

Prof. Ran Blizer, manager of Clalit’s research operations and a member of the Health Ministry’s advisory team, called on Israelis under 60 to also get vaccinated against COVID.

“We need to turn the focus to younger age groups, people ages 40 to 60, who have yet to get vaccinated: that’s about 500,000 people – 27% of the age group; these are people who don’t always realize that they are in a risk group. But they currently make up 31% of the people on respirators.”

“One out of every 30 people in this age group will get infected and be hospitalized with a serious case of the coronavirus. So go get vaccinated.”

 

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/296813?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

7 Myths About the Coronavirus Vaccine --- Don’t be fooled by bad information or irrational skepticism. Get your shots as soon as possible.

 

 

7 Myths About the Coronavirus Vaccine

Don’t be fooled by bad information or irrational skepticism. Get your shots as soon as possible.

As the vaccines for the coronavirus become more ubiquitous, so do misinformation, myths and misconceptions about them. This is unfortunate, because these untruths delay acceptance of the vaccines, and widespread immunization is the fastest and best way to begin to return to a more normal way of life. Seven of the most common myths I’ve heard from patients, friends and colleagues follow, along with my rebuttals.

The vaccine hurts fertility, especially in young people.

For some reason, this is the most common false assertion I hear. Sometime last year, a German doctor and a former Pfizer employee raised a concern that the coronavirus’s spike protein — the material that makes up those sharp protruding bumps you see in depictions of the virus — was in some ways similar to a protein that is part of a healthy placenta’s functioning during pregnancy. Therefore, they ventured, developing antibodies to the spike protein from a vaccine could lead to antibodies that might also attack a woman’s body when she was pregnant or trying to get pregnant, leading to complications. This theory is now widely circulated.

It is mistaken. The two spike proteins are distinct, and there is no evidence that the vaccination leads to antibodies that attack the placenta.

While the Pfizer trial of its vaccine attempted to exclude pregnant women, 23 pregnant women were a part of it, probably having gotten pregnant soon after vaccination. Two adverse events were seen in the trials: a spontaneous abortion and retained products of conception (placental or fetal tissue that remains in the uterus, often after miscarriage); both occurred in the placebo group. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, said on Wednesday that more than 10,000 pregnant women have received the vaccine with “thus far no red flags.”

 




 

Once you’re vaccinated, you can go back to normal, pre-pandemic life.

This is, unfortunately, not true. I cannot stress enough how amazing the vaccines are: Those that are approved are proven to prevent symptomatic disease, as well as bad outcomes like hospitalizations or death. But we don’t yet know whether they prevent asymptomatic infections. It is possible that vaccinated people could still become infected, be unaware and spread the coronavirus to others.

We hope to find out soon if this possibility is real or not; some of the early information coming out of other countries looks promising. But until we know with greater certainty, we still need everyone — even those who are immunized — to mask up, distance from others and remain careful.

When we hit herd immunity, this will all be over.

Herd immunity refers to a situation where enough protection exists in a community that exponential growth of infections is highly unlikely, if not impossible. The concept is usually discussed when diseases are rare, as with measles.

Herd immunity will protect us from large numbers of Covid-19 cases only once we have suppressed the disease. Nowhere in the United States are we near this point, though. The coronavirus is still hugely prevalent, and new variants may be even more contagious. As communities achieve herd immunity, they will see slightly less Covid-19 the next day than they did the day before. It will not disappear overnight. Herd immunity will signal the beginning of the end of the pandemic — not the day we are done with it.

 




 

Side effects of this vaccine are much more severe than those of typical vaccines.

Allergic reactions are not a reason to avoid vaccination. Very few people given the vaccine have experienced anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction. More have experienced symptoms like aches, chills, pain and fever, but those symptoms are not usually worrisome: They are often signs that your body’s immune system is working. More severe occurrences, like deaths in frail, older patients, need to be investigated, but it’s entirely possible that this is a coincidence and not unexpected in that population.


Continue reading the main story

In coronavirus vaccine studies, Bell’s palsy has seemed to occur more often in people who received the vaccine than in those who received the placebo. (Bell’s palsy is a temporary weakness or mild paralysis, usually affecting one side of the face.) It’s important to note, however, that among the general population, Bell’s palsy appears in about 15 to 20 people per 100,000 people each year. That is a higher rate than what occurred in the trials: Four of the 30,000 people in the Moderna trial (one in the placebo group) and four of the 44,000 people in the Pfizer trial developed Bell’s palsy.

The studies were rushed, and corners were cut.

First of all, more scientists were probably working on this one thing than have ever collectively focused on any one thing in the history of the world. We should expect progress.

We also had a number of head starts. A lot of exploratory and preclinical work had already been done on coronavirus vaccines because of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. In addition, because of significant public investment and a guaranteed worldwide market, many companies immediately devoted lots of resources to this task.

To be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, vaccines must clear three phases of study. The first is small (likely tens of people) and focuses on safety. The second is larger (maybe hundreds of people), involves people who have known risks for the disease and focuses on safety and whether there is some sort of biological response (specifically, antibody production). Phase 3 involves large, randomized controlled trials (thousands to tens of thousands of people) that focus on effectiveness (that is, preventing illness) and side effects. With coronavirus vaccines, the process was highly accelerated, but all of these phases were completed and were reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration.

We’re also focusing (appropriately) on the few vaccine successes. Many companies failed or haven’t succeeded yet. Those vaccines that made it through the gantlet were thoroughly studied and found to be safe and effective.

 



BINGO NIGHT AT THE YESHIVA OF PHILADELPHIA - ALL PROCEEDS TO THE CHEVRA KADISHA



 

Covid-19 is less dangerous than the vaccine.

People hear of the risks of side effects and assume they’re better off not getting vaccinated. They’re comparing those risks to perfect health instead of to the risk of Covid-19 itself. But assuming perfect health is unwarranted: Covid is prevalent and dangerous.

A vaccine that is ‘only’ 70 percent effective isn’t worth it.

As with so many things in public health, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It’s great that in trials the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been about 95 percent effective against symptomatic disease, but that level of effectiveness is not necessary. In trials Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was 80 percent to 90 percent effective, and it changed the world.

This is a version of the perception problem that the flu vaccine faces every year. People refuse to get it because it’s not “good enough.” They miss that it’s “good.” The more people who get vaccinated, the more morbidity and mortality we avoid. The best coronavirus vaccine is the one you can get as soon as possible.




Aaron E. Carroll is a contributing opinion writer. He is a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute who blogs on health research and policy at The Incidental Economist. @aaronecarroll

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/13/opinion/covid-vaccine-safe.html

“If the government says, ‘Wear a mask,’ that’s a reason for them not to wear a mask,” said Itzhak Shinfeld.

 

Anger grows at Israel’s ultra-Orthodox virus scofflaws, threatening rupture with secular Jews

BNEI BRAK, Israel —The Shinfelds, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family in this most religious of cities, are used to being a bit at odds with the rest of Israel. Their community's tradition of large families — the couple has 10 children and 30 grandchildren — strict observance and exemption from military service have long created friction with the more secular majority.

But they say they have never felt hostility like they do now, as a pandemic-exhausted nation has turned its rage at ultra-Orthodox scofflaws.

As Israel endures its third national lockdown, social media has been inflamed by images of black-clad men brazenly crowding schools, weddings and other events, including 20,000 at a recent Jerusalem funeral of a leading rabbi. Secular critics have cast the ultra-Orthodox, fairly or not, as superspreaders supreme, a drag chute on the country’s race to vaccinate its way out of the coronavirus’s grip.

“Now it’s not only tense — it feels like hatred,” said Vivian Shinfeld, 60, of the anger she feels even from some less-religious members of her own family. “Now it is starting to feel like a war.”

The Shinfelds consider themselves “modern” ultra-Orthodox. They wear masks, have been vaccinated and condemned the covid-19 violators who torched a bus a few blocks from their house in protest of lockdown restrictions. But they too have become pariahs, ghosted by old friends and unable to get a repairman to come fix their refrigerator.

The backlash could have cultural and political impacts well after the pandemic ends.

“There has been a schism growing for a while, and the pandemic is making it wider,” said Tamar El-Or, an anthropology professor at Hebrew University and longtime scholar of ultra-Orthodox culture. “When this virus is gone, nothing is going to be same.”

The ultra-Orthodox — or Haredim as they are known in Hebrew — largely shun modern society. For decades, Israeli governments have accorded them autonomy in exchange for their leaders’ support in parliament and subsidized a lifestyle that favors Torah study over employment with welfare payments.

“It’s time that we have one law, for everyone,” said Yair Lapid, a leader of the parliamentary opposition, in a campaign ad contrasting a classroom empty during the lockdown with another filled with ultra-Orthodox students.

National elections are scheduled for March 23, and opponents have seized on the anger as a cudgel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is blamed for not enforcing restrictions in a sector essential to his ruling coalition. (Just 2 percent of the fines issued last year for violating coronavirus restrictions were in ultra-Orthodox areas, according to Be Free Israel, a group advocating for religious pluralism.) Haredi parties, which often serve as kingmakers in the parliament, hold 16 seats. Polls, including one released in earlier this month by Channel 12 News, indicate 60 percent or more of all Israelis want ultra-Orthodox parties out of government.

In January, Defense Minister Benny Gantz proposed ending the ultra-Orthodox exemption from conscription, which is mandatory for other Israeli Jews. Academics and business leaders are renewing their calls for Haredi schools to teach basic math and science. Meantime, some secular lawmakers continue to target the per-child welfare payments that support large Haredi families.

Even within the community, tensions are emerging between hard-liners and others who have begun to seek education and careers outside their neighborhoods.

“You can’t ignore it anymore,” said Hila Lefkowitz, an ultra-Orthodox activist who is running for parliament as part of a new alternative religious party. “The way that the Haredi society functions, with its independence, now we are seeing the problems with that.”

The contentious relationship between public health officials and the Haredim goes back to the beginning of the pandemic. Most rabbinical leaders did obey early orders to close schools and synagogues, but only reluctantly, citing the central role of daily religious gatherings in Haredi life.

As pandemic fatigue set in, defiance grew. Some rabbis, complaining that secular Israelis were being allowed to gather at mass political protests against Netanyahu each week, ordered the religious schools, called yeshivas, to reopen. Weddings and funerals continued, some of them drawing hundreds. Making up 12 percent of the population, the ultra-Orthodox have accounted for more than a quarter of positive coronavirus cases, according to Health Ministry data.

Two months into the vaccine campaign, Israel’s rate of new infections has only just begun to bend downward. Its seven-day average of 6,952 of new positive cases is down over three weeks from 8,624.

Government dictates, in any case, are anathema to the ultra-Orthodox, many of whom reject state power in favor of biblical authority. As in the United States, covid restrictions became political.

“If the government says, ‘Wear a mask,’ that’s a reason for them not to wear a mask,” said Itzhak Shinfeld.

Modern Haredim — who adhere to halacha, or Jewish law, but don’t outright reject mainstream life — fear that tensions between their community and wider Israeli society could rupture the growing ties between these two worlds.

Almost two-thirds of ultra-Orthodox are under 19 and are entering the workforce in greater numbers. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 76 percent of Haredi women work outside the home now, even as men still mostly chose a life of Torah scholarship. The number of ultra-Orthodox students in higher education has more than doubled in the past decade, although it remains below 13 percent.

Itzhak Shinfeld, who has recently been able to hire Haredi plumbers and electricians, worries that this modest progress will be reversed if secular politicians clamp down on the ultra-Orthodox in the name of controlling the pandemic.

“We are in the middle of a big integration,” he said. “The minute they feel oppressed, they will close up the box again.”

Shinfeld, 61, illustrates the divide within the Haredi world. He was born and raised in Bnei Brak, one of the country’s centers of ultra-Orthodox life, and educated at Israel’s largest yeshiva. He still wears the traditional broad black hat and knee pants of the Gur sect each Sabbath and has no television in his house.

But, after studying the Torah for an hour every morning, he works as a lawyer and owns a construction company. During a recent weekday visit on his patio, he wore a blue dress shirt and black yarmulke. He served in the Army in the 1980s, reaching the rank of captain, something unthinkable for stricter Haredim. Lockdown tensions have only widened the gap between security forces and the ultra-Orthodox, some of whom have taken to pelting police patrols with rocks.

“Things that were normal then are not normal now,” he said, fingering his smartphone.

Some relatively moderate members of the community say they believe their rabbis have failed them by openly defying government closure orders, and this, in some instances, has called into question the male-dominated hierarchy. Some Haredi women feel emboldened now in asking for a greater say.

“There's no more trust between the community and its leaders,” said Lefkowitz. “So there are people who would never have entered political life now entering.”

The Shinfelds hold their more conservative leaders accountable leaders for flouting covid restrictions. But police, too, bear responsibility for the worst clashes, they say, by storming into their streets in a way that wouldn’t happen in a secular Tel Aviv neighborhood. Online scolds have dubbed their community a “death cult,” but the couple share the belief widely held among the ultra-Orthodox that they have been singled out.

“I don’t want to see the synagogues open, but they should also close the protests,” Itzhak Shinfeld said. 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/anger-grows-at-israel-s-ultra-orthodox-virus-scofflaws-threatening-rupture-with-secular-jews/ar-BB1dwnRV?fbclid=IwAR1PiZ45ZbGxO2dSGjre6aEPGsZu3rorMWqVyedG9bsAx1LCGszeBAMIJKk&fullscreen=true#image=3