Biddably Compliant Ciizens under COVID Restrictions They Are Not

"These were members of my own community with hatred in their eyes, flipping the finger toward me, calling me a Nazi, saying I deserve to die."

"I was just brutally assaulted, hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members of the Boro Park protest — while yelling at me 'Nazi’ and ‘Hitler’ — after Heshy Tischler [city council candidate] recognized me and ordered the crowd to chase me down the street,” 

"All these months I keep a distance, wear a mask not to get sick, advocate for measures that save lives, they disrespect my space and do something horrifying."

"[I was] hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members."

Jacob Kornbluh, politics reporter, Jewish Insider

 

"To the extent there are communities that are upset, that's because they haven't been following the original rules."

"That's why the infection spread. That’s why we are where we are, make no mistake."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

 

"We are appalled by Governor Cuomo's words and actions today."

"He has chosen to pursue a scientifically and constitutionally questionable shutdown of our communities."

Simcha Eichenstein, New York state assemblyman

"We know that we've got to get out of this and we've got to get out of it quickly. No one wants to see a full resurgence, a second wave in New York City. If we get a second wave, then a lot more will be shut down for a lot longer."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio 

The epitome of good citizenship they clearly are not, demonstrably. Demonstrating that they are faithful to their fundamentalist religious view, quite less committed to their community's health and security in the face of COVID-19's rampage through the boroughs where ultra-religiously-orthodox Jews live, work and pray, not necessarily in that order. Tensions arose within these communities in New York boroughs from the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 to the present time. When the community leaders felt it more important to continue holding in-person religious services than to recommend to their synagogue members that for the present, it would be more prudent to be physically distant.

This is a community for which physical distance at any time, is difficult. They are close-knit, have very large families and for them synagogue and community are paramount influences in their lives. Religious holiday events call for mass celebrations, large gatherings for prayer in synagogues and family get-togethers, unrestrained, boisterous, celebrating life and faith. Brooklyn's neighbourhoods of predominately orthodox Jewish communities are difficult to restrain, much less to convince to tone down their community events through which the coronavirus transmission skyrockets.

Funnily enough, a similar situation pertains in Montreal, Canada, in the very same communities. Some members of which travel frequently between their Montreal communities to those in New York, to share religious events and reunite with extended family. Inconveniently bringing the virus back with them. Israel's runaway infection rate has much to thank the same communities in Israel for, where they are every bit as resistant to government protective edicts as they are elsewhere. While constituting 12 percent of the population, they represent 40 percent of the infections in Israel.

God uber alles. And where in Israel the government, hugely dependent on ultra-religious political blocs to shore up minority governments, leaves the situation as is, for fear of the religious communities withdrawing their support for government, necessitating yet another in a string of elections, no such restraint on government orders exists in New York. Where the city's mayor and the state governor issue statements critical of the community's lack of commitment to personal safety, extending to the wider community comes into focus.

Where the communities in question send up outraged cries of discrimination. Mr. Kornbluh, the reporter who was attacked while he was, in essence, going about his journalistic business, as a member of the same orthodox community explains the reasons the community is defiant represents a tangled web of government mistrust, and resentment that lawmakers 'interfere' in their religious activities, along with unfairly criticizing the orthodox community. He feels that community outreach has been lacking, which adds to the element of denial and distrust.

The reality is that the pandemic hit at an early stage hardest within the Orthodox neighbourhoods in New York, where the first reports of cases surfaced. And where dozens of funerals took place day following day, while authorities took steps to clamp down on the huge funeral gatherings where virus transmission ran rampant. The targeted community feels they've been unfairly singled out for criticism. And while there was a notable drop in cases over the summer, infections have once again risen, and the orthodox community appears to have significantly relaxed social distancing and other public health rules.

Within the communities flyers instruct families to refrain from having their children tested, since that has the potential of revealing a rising positivity rate, risking a shutdown of celebrations for the High Holidays. Because of accusations from the communities and a shortage of Yiddish-speaking interpreters, those within the communities have lacked official encouragement or the enforcement to ensure public health guidelines are complied with. 

On Tuesday, Governor Cuomo ordered schools in the areas to close, and he also shut down non-essential businesses, while imposing strict capacity limits on religious gatherings, ensuring an immediate blowback from the elected officials within the community, claiming the governor had lied to them in a "duplicitous bait and switch", making "irresponsible and pejorative" comments with Jews the target.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn to protest Covid-19 restrictions in New York City on Oct. 7, 2020.  Yuki Iwamura / Reuters

In God They Trust

"Throughout this pandemic, infection rates in Haredi [Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities] and some Arab towns have been more than double the rate of the wider population. Encouraged by their religious leaders, who they revere and follow unquestioningly, they have resisted adhering to many public health measures intended to manage the contagion rate and have insisted that continued prayer will do more to contain the virus than masks or social distancing."

Vivian Bercovici, Journalist, Tel Aviv

In the United States Evangelical churches have resisted public health and government instructions to close to normal activities during the pandemic. Drive-in services were put in place in many churches to allow congregations to meet in smaller, socially distanced numbers in church parking lots. In some churches built to accommodate huge memberships, there was resistance to mandated closures. Large church gatherings of fundamentalists in Korea and elsewhere were found to be responsible for massive COVID outbreaks.

SAUL LOEB via Getty Images

Supporters listen as President Donald Trump speaks at a Students for Trump event at the Dream City Church in Phoenix.

 

In Montreal in the early stages of the novel coronavirus, Hasidic communities with their large families and penchant for socializing, alongside congregations packed into limited interiors, cases of COVID rose quickly, particularly when congregation members travelled to synagogues in New York to meet with their American counterparts and brought infections back with them that spread in the community. Government and health authorities had little option but to impose 14-day lockdowns on a number of Hasidic communities in the Montreal area to control the outbreaks.

The Tash community, in Boisbriand, north of Montreal, has a population of roughly 4,000. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

 

 

In many areas of the world religious fundamentals declared themselves protected from harm by their faith. That it was far more important to continue attendance at their places of worship to fervently pray and that those of faith could depend upon the protection that faith conferred on them. Nothing untoward could occur to these believers because a force more powerful than any mere virus would keep them safe from harm. It is as though religious fervour robs people of common sense. Their faith so intense no room is left for critical thinking.

 

And norsis the the Islamic world free of fundamentalist Islmists who refuse the majority consensus of closing down mosques during the pandemic. From Cairo to Mogadishu, the risks of contagion were ignored in many mosques: "I am not telling you to reject the preventive measures, but there is too much exaggeration of coronavirus", Sheikh Abdi Hayi in Mogadishu said in his sermon, as people prayed on the street, the packed interior of the mosque now allowing them to enter.

Faisal mosque in Islamabad during Jummah prayer  Photo Shazziya Mehmood: "Kindly arrest all of them, they put everyone at risk"

In Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, mosques were intensely crowded as the faithful flocked to hear a religious scholar inform his congregation via loudspeaker: "We are not too weak to let this one virus empty our mosques." And in the town of Depok, south of Jakarta, Inonesia, Aswin Jusar 76, stated "Allah is protecting those who abide by their obligations", as he prepared to attend a Friday prayer despite a call from the mayor for religious activities to be suspended.

Muslim faithfuls attend Friday prayers at the National Mosque in Abuja, Nigeria [Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters]

 

The religious communities in New York hosted an uncommonly high number of COVID cases throughout the pandemic, earning criticism from health and government authorities for their insistence on the vital importance in their lives of attendance at synagogue. In Brooklyn Orthodox Jews were preparing to mark Yom Kippur, the most sober, important day in the Jewish holidays calendar, raising the concern that praying in numbers would expose more people to infection in an area where community transmission is already much above the average.

Illustrative. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

In Israel, with its nine million population, another lockdown, more strict than the original has been imposed on the entire country. It is not, however, the entire country where COVID cases have risen and continue to rise steeply, and for this reason alone, many Israelis are enraged at once again having their lives disrupted without sound purpose but to satisfy the demands of he ultra-Orthodox whose political wing holds the balance of power in the Knesset. Though small in numbers, by supporting the Likud and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they are able to exert outsized influence in government decisions.

The Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think-tank, released a poll report that 25 percent of the Israeli public have no trust now in the prime minister's management of the nation's COVID situation. In early April that number was 60 percent approval, reflecting trust in the ability of Prime Minister Netanyahu to act expeditiously and carefully to gain control of the virus's impact and its spread. Their trust was rewarded when case numbers plunged close to zero. The public was awarded an exhortation to relax and enjoy themselves; restrictions lifted.

Like publics everywhere in the world, released from the bondage of unnatural social life, evading all human contact, focusing on hygiene to an uncommon degree, and remaining socially isolated, the opportunity to break  free led people to behave recklessly and the predictable resulted with a steadily increasing case rise. This time the government was not as quick to take remedial, protective action. Its focus was on exterior politics and diplomacy, along with controversial plans of note drawing international concern.

As another crisis with an expanding case load loomed, the public became distrustful of their government and protests began mounting in numbers and frequency. Israel now posts one of the highest daily per capita infection rates globally. That has resulted in large numbers of Israelis testing positive and being seriously ill with hospitalizations so great in number hospital capacity and ability to care for the sick are near to collapse. The military has been tasked with setting up field hospitals for the overflow.

Closer inspection to numbers and locations demonstrate that it is the Haredi and some Arab towns responsible for the greater rise in infections. When the former director of the ministry of health, epidemiologist Ronnie Gamzu was appointed to manage the response to the pandemic, his expertise and initiatives have been knocked back by the prime minister when they focus on the number of cases in the Haredi community. A very small proportion of Israeli Jews belong to the ultra-Orthodox community, about 12 percent in total.

Yet that 12 percent wields hugely disproportionate influence, thanks to its role as Likud support in a minority government. Not just this time around, but following most elections when, small in number as they are, they end up holding the balance of power through their conditional support of the government. Conditioned on government listening carefully to their exhortations, and demands under threat of removal of support and the fall of the government.

In this instance, it is the coronavirus that the tail wags the dog over. Their insistence that should prayer and study halls close, outdoor political demonstrations must also be shut down. They demanded that the entire country, irrespective of many parts of the country having little reason to shut down, with low case loads -- be shut down, not only the Haredi communities where most of the cases arise. This is a situation that has enraged most Israelis, most of whom are not particularly religious, and many of whom are secular Jews.

Many Haredi during the first lockdown refused adamantly to follow government recommendations. Self isolation and mask-wearing was not for them, much less social distancing. this is an attitude that still prevails in many of the areas Haredis congregate within. The broader Israeli public is irate over this, bringing ever greater numbers of Israelis out to the protests. An effect of the latest, strict lockdown will be the death of many small and mid-size business interests.

Ultimately, fundamentalists anywhere and everywhere seek guidance from a mystical, mythical figure above, scorning and belittling the authority of elected governments dedicated to serve the best interests of everyone they represent. The loyalty of these people of hyper-faith beliefs is to their vision of an almighty spirit, never to the nations in which they are citizens. Their care and concern goes no further than their fellow congregants; none others need apply.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in a Jerusalem synagogue September 9, 2020, Photo: Ohad Zwogemberg