More broadly, police actions against them are seen by many Israelis as a long-standing effort to end the exceptionalism that has characterized ultra-Orthodoxy for decades. It allowed them to evade military service, live on state benefits, and often act as directors in Israeli politics, critics and political rivals say.
Bnei Brak, a largely ultra-Orthodox city of over 200,000, and Jerusalem’s small neighborhood, Mea Shearim, have seen the worst violence.
Community extremists have been accused of graffiti on a wall in Jerusalem, which said the city’s police chief was “Hitler.”
The atmosphere became so feverish that some Haredim, as the ultra-Orthodox are collectively known, fastened their yellow Star of David badges to their jackets and labeled recent Bnei Brak police crackdowns as “Kristallnacht”.
These allusions to the Holocaust and allegations of Israeli “Nazism” were widely and immediately condemned by rabbis and politicians in the Haredi community. But the same leaders were equivocal, at best, about complying with the rules of blocking the country and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, has repeatedly ordered community schools to remain open in defiance of government regulations for months. Recently, it is said that the rabbi said it should not open if the confrontation with the police would seem likely.
The Covid-related death rate among ultra-Orthodox people over the age of 65 was estimated in December last year at about 3.6 percent higher than the Israeli norm, according to the health ministry.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that Haredi communities suffer infection rates with over 20% of those tested, and hospitalizations of ultra-Orthodox patients are among the highest in the country.
Haredi families have an average of seven children and are (along with Israeli Arabs) the poorest community in the country. They live in densely packed areas, where men are encouraged to spend a lifetime in a religious study.
Nearly half of Haredi’s population lives in material poverty, according to the OECD.
Although they are rarely integrated with other parts of Israeli society, they live extremely active social and religious lives. Frequent gathering in large numbers is a central part of their cultural life.
“Every day, for hours, we are in synagogues, we meet, we are together in lessons, we meet with rabbis every day, more about the Sabbath,” Dov Halbertal, an ordained rabbi and expert on Jewish law, told CNN.
“It simply came to our notice then [to socially distance]. In addition, we are big families, we have people of all ages, we have 10 people in a small apartment, it is very difficult … To be locked in the apartment, you are used to a social life “, he said.
An ultra-Orthodox Jew himself, Halbertal is also deeply critical of fellow rabbis who, for nearly a year, have led their communities in rebellion against national regulations aimed at lowering Israel’s Covid-19 infection rate.
He said many rabbis feared that their followers would suffer spiritual harm if they stayed away from study and community prayer. And that some members feared that younger members would deviate altogether from their congregations.
“Rabbis can lose power over communities,” Halbertal added.
But he condemned the haredim for violating secular laws designed to save lives.
Halbertal spoke on a street in Mea Shearim where almost every corner is plastered with posters announcing the recent death of the ultra-Orthodox. Not everyone has been killed by Covid, but it’s hard to avoid the feeling that there are more of these black and white notifications than usual.
“I like the ultra-Orthodox they belong to. But I see that the moral failure is so profound and for me I can’t sleep at night thinking about death – about their blood on earth crying out for us. during our test, our moral test as religious people, “Halbertal said.
The Israeli government is considering extending a strict deadlock that is set to end on Sunday for another week, and some politicians have called for fines to be doubled for violating social distance regulations.
Infection and death rates have fallen slightly, but remain high even as Israel continues to lead the world in vaccine launches, with about a third of those targeted for vaccination receiving the first blows.
Bnei Brak’s mayor, Avraham Rubinstein, insists his city is facing Covid regulations and has condemned violence and attacks on police.
“There are some people who are behaving violently. We denounce them. We don’t want them, and their own communities don’t want them. Their communities have handed them over to the police,” he said, just days after he had been personally threatened on the city’s streets by mobs. young extremists Haredi.
Rubinstein insisted that most schools and synagogues are closed and that the municipality is strongly leading the vaccination campaign. But health ministry data suggest he still has a long way to go in places like Bnei Brak, with only 12% receiving their first dose. Many other Haredi communities are in low numbers.
Part of this poor vaccination record can be explained by an encouraged boycott of anonymous red posters seen everywhere in Mea Shearim.
They say the media is part of a plot to hide evidence that the inoculation campaign began at the same time as a new Covid variant appeared in the UK and called the “death vaccine” shot.
The same posters may also be why a CNN team filming in the area was attacked by teenage students in the yeshiva (religious school) who tried to break into a room and called the media “criminals.”
Michael Schwartz contributed to this report.