He said the city has many elderly residents and called for urgent action. Ran Saar, who runs the Maccabi Healthcare Services, a leading provider, told parliament he estimates some 75,000 people in Bnei Brak, or 38% of the population, could be infected. Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, home to large ultra-Orthodox communities, have the largest concentrations. Israel has over 7,030 reported cases, with 37 deaths. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia that can be fatal. Kanievsky, 92, now urges followers to stay at home.įor most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. In recent days, defiance has subsided as the scale of the outbreak became clear. Police say officers have been assaulted multiple times and several paramedics have been injured by ultra-Orthodox crowds. Some shouted “Nazis” as police arrested or fined violators. In recent weeks, attempts by police to enforce quarantine orders in Bnei Brak and religious neighborhoods of Jerusalem resulted in standoffs with angry crowds. Influential Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky of Bnei Brak said closing religious seminaries is more harmful than the virus. When Israel began shutting down schools, workplaces and its international airport last month to slow the outbreak, Litzman was not the only religious leader to resist. He betrayed all Israelis,” Zehava Galon, a former leader of the secular Meretz party, wrote in the Haaretz daily.
Litzman did not just betray his own voters. “An outbreak in Bnei Brak is the same as an outbreak in Tel Aviv. The channel said Litzman had quietly been breaking the rules and attending prayer sessions at synagogues.
#ISRAEL LOCKDOWN TV#
Netanyahu, who tested negative, went through an identical experience after a previous exposure to an infected ultra-Orthodox aide.Ĭhannel 12 TV said ministry officials were furious with Litzman, who had resisted calls in recent weeks to impose restrictions on gatherings at religious institutions. This forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the ministry’s director general and reportedly the head of the Mossad spy agency, into quarantine because of exposure to Litzman. Ultra-Orthodox leaders have used their considerable political leverage to help maintain the community's insular lifestyle with government grants, feeding secular complaints that the haredim are a burden to the collective.Ī new debate erupted Thursday when Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, a powerful ultra-Orthodox politician meant to lead the battle against the virus, was confirmed to be infected. Since Israel's founding, secular and ultra-Orthodox Israelis have viewed each other with suspicion, and tensions have erupted repeatedly over hot button issues such as the military draft. “I am very, very concerned that we’ll see a broader contagion in the ultra-Orthodox community and to the broader Israeli population,” said Hagai Levine, a Hebrew University professor who chairs the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians. Synagogues, the centerpiece of social life, bring men together to pray and socialize in small spaces.
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox tend to live in poor, crowded neighborhoods where sickness can quickly spread. The crisis is rooted in a combination of factors.
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