Project COVID-19: Cremation or Burial

The World of the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox Community
in the COVID-19 Era
Ada Taggar Cohen
Graduate School of Theology, Doshisha UniversityThis paper is part of a project on religious reactions to the COVID-19 global pandemic. It
surveys the major responses of Jewish Ultra-Orthodox communities during the past year,with an attempt to understand the reasons behind the fact that these communities had suchhigh rates of infection, as well as so many deaths, while refusing to abide by state-imposedrestrictions. The aim is to assess the situation through understanding the background of
the Ultra-Orthodox community’s history and the principle issues emerging from therestrictions imposed on their daily religious life. The main points to be observed are:
•Who are the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox, where did they start historicallyand what was their place among Jewish communities in the 19th-20thcenturies? How large is their percentage in Jewish communities in theworld? Their community in Israel today.

•Ultra-Orthodoxy as an answer to modernism•

Ultra-Orthodoxy and the Holocaust.

•Understanding their community as an autonomous world, while
rejecting state authority on their lives.

•Clashes between state-authority (police) and the Ultra-Orthodox.

It is now the beginning of February 2021 and the Jews of Ultra-Orthodox communities arein the headlines in connection with the Corona virus spread, mainly in the State of Israel
as well as in New York and London. These Jewish communities refuse to abide by thelegal restrictions imposed on them by their governments concerning care to be taken tostop the spread of the virus.
It is in a sense shocking to see how these communities suffer due to their reaction
to the pandemic – or more accurately their inappropriate non-reaction to the dire situation

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Ada Taggar Cohen: The World of the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox Community in the COVID-19 Era

caused by it – by not keeping distances, refusing to refrain from gathering in large numbers,
and then refusing vaccination.
This essay will firstly give a short introduction to the origin of communal life inJewish Orthodoxy, and explain Orthodox Jew’s main beliefs which are not compatible
with the fight against the virus spread. It will try to place these beliefs not only in thereligious context, but also within the context of autonomous communities in a democraticsociety.

1. The Background for the Emergence of Ultra-Orthodoxy in Jewish
History
It is important to understand the background of the emergence of Orthodoxy in Judaism
as a reaction to modernization in the European continent. During the 19th century, Europe
was politically still a combination of monarchies which were slowly becoming
democracies. The process gave people freedom of movement, and specifically for Jews
who for hundreds of years had been living in closed communities, there was an opening
for them to become involved in the culture of the general population especially regarding
the acquisition of knowledge and familiarization with literature that would otherwise havebeen outside the Jewish teaching canon and curricular. Most of these Jewish communities
lived in Eastern Europe until the end of the 19th century, and the development ofindustrialization and urbanization in this region had a strong impact on Jewish
communities living there.1 However, some Jewish communities’ reaction to these changes
were to close up around their beliefs and practices, while denying its young generation
access to current new teaching. The basic autonomy that was held by the Jewish
communities and their control over people’s lives was gradually lost due to children
studying in state schools; their reaction to this was to gather them back to the community’s
schools in order to maintain the community’s way of life. A key term coined by a
Slovenian/Hungarian Rabbi from Bratislava was: “New is prohibited from the Torah”, thatis to say, renewing things that are against the commandments of Jewish Law wasprohibited, meaning that Jewish traditions followed in the mid-19th century go back toancient times.
While Jews in Western Europe moved towards integrating into the general society,of around some five million Jews in Eastern Europe, only a very small proportion of theirchildren went to the state schools. Studying science was not allowed in the Jewish Schools,

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Project COVID-19: Cremation or Burialand those who studied them, did so individually. The emergence of Zionism towards theend of the 19th century, was perceived as a great threat to these religious communities andwas strongly opposed by them. As a result, most of these large Jewish communities ofEastern Europe remained there and did not immigrate to Palestine after the First World
War. During the Nazi German conquest of the region most of these Jewish communities
were exterminated in the concentration camps, the horrific devastation of European
Judaism. The remnants of the Jewish Holocaust escaped to Palestine and established newcommunities there, as well as the one in New York. These closed communities controlled
by their Rabbis tried to avoid getting involved in state politics.
After the Second World War renewal of these communities was the most importantactivity undertaken by their leaders both in Israel and the USA. Some were also revived
in England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Apart from Israel none of thesecommunities were involved in political institutions. The countries where they now lived
offered conditions for their recovery, and the communities flourished.

2. The Most Important Religious Activities for the Ultra-Orthodox andtheir Problematic Implementation During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Seeing themselves as remnants of the great Jewish communities destroyed andexterminated during the Holocaust, marriage and having a large number of children wasconceived as the most important act. Marriage ceremonies are events which include a large
number of people and a lot of food is consumed. At the other end of life, funerals are also
considered a must to be attended. Both events are regarded as the fulfillment of religious
commandments, and are interpreted through religious laws.
In everyday life an orthodox Jew must attend prayers morning, noon and evening,in the synagogue, an environment where a large number of men, the minimum being ten,
are needed to conduct the three daily prayers. Living in small communities, the orthodox
Jews were able to lead this kind of life around a synagogue which also served as a houseof permanent learners - a group of elite students studying the Jewish scriptures thus
enabling them to interpret these scriptures in answer to present-day questions concerning
the life of the community.
In regard to modern technology, the use of modern machines was allowed and evensupported by the religious leaders, but when it came to the use of technology that could
influence ideas and enable contact with the world outside of the community – such as30

Ada Taggar Cohen: The World of the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox Community in the COVID-19 Era

television, and certainly internet connections on mobile phones – this has been prohibited.
The only way of communication in the orthodox world is by physical boards on the streets,
where notices are placed daily, or community’s newspapers. Another way is a restricted
phone that does not have access to the internet. This created a closed community cut off
from the general population. Even more so, the orthodox community is excluded from thegeneral population because it speaks Yiddish (an older dialect of German), and since thechildren do not attend state schools, they do not know the language of the country in which
they live, in many cases (that would be Modern Hebrew in Israel and English in the USA).
Each community has leaders that connect with the state authorities but the ordinary people
are not supposed to be in contact with life outside of their community. They have theirown stores, their own markets, and their own companies approved by their leaders for theproduction of food, clothing and other household necessities. It is a community thatsustains itself to a certain degree.
Orthodox communities around the world are growing fast, especially due to theirhigh fertility rate in the OECD countries. They marry young and have large families, thus
forming a society with a high percentage of young people. As such in Israel the UltraOrthodox make up 12% of the population (more than 1,110,000 people in 2019). Morethan half of this population is between the ages of 0-19.
In general, the Orthodox community is a poor community, due to its inability tobecome part of the workforce for lack of education. The issue of daily study concerns theJewish scriptures, and does not include other general studies. This lack of education
creates total dependency on the leaders, who themselves are not educated outside of theJewish traditional scriptures. In Israel – a welfare state – the Ultra-Orthodox community
relies on the support of the state, which supports a family according to the number ofchildren. The families are thus large and live in very crowded homes. At the same time,they also rely on their community for support.

3. Reactions of the Ultra-Orthodox Communities to COVID-19,Especially in Israel2
The first news items in the newspapers once the virus started to spread were that the UltraOrthodox conducted marriage ceremonies with a large number of participants. Around thistime, newspapers also drew attention to the huge crowds which followed the funeral of aRabbi who died of COVID-19. In October during the Jewish high holidays in New York,31

Project COVID-19: Cremation or Burial

the number of infected and sick people spiked due to the large gatherings in synagogues
and family celebrations.3 In Israel, the majority of cities with a high number of infected
people – designated as “red” cities – were cities with large (or only) Ultra-Orthodox
communities. (At the top of the lists were Beitar Elit, Mody’in-Elit, Bet-Shemesh, BeneiBerak, all cities with almost exclusively Ultra-Orthodox populations). These communities
strongly voiced their refusal to abide by the restrictions of the Israeli government. All
Israel has been under lockdown, no opening of schools or businesses was allowed, but theUltra-Orthodox continued life as usual.4 One of their most egregious acts was to continue
keeping their schools open despite lockdown orders. It is understandable that leaving
children at home doing nothing could cause them to look for activities elsewhere thatmight deviate from the strict life style of Jewish orthodoxy. They were unable to stop
worshiping through prayers. They refused to close schools in accordance with their main
belief that study is an inherent religious duty for all male Jews; and thus they maintainedclasses, with kids mostly wearing masks, while adults continued studying in their own
institutions called Yeshivah.
To conclude this short survey, some of the most crucial events in Israel as well as
in New York City were (and still are in Israel) the violent clashes between Ultra-Orthodox
males and the police trying to enforce restrictions. The Ultra-Orthodox have always
reacted to the police with suspicion, they have no trust in the good will of police officers,
and feel that their lives in the closed community are being interfered with. After several
members of the police force were injured, the police in Israel decided not to enforce therestrictions on Ultra-Orthodox communities – especially in Jerusalem and Benei-Berak,
two cities with large Ultra-Orthodox populations.5
This gives rise to an important question on the way in which a democracy – in thiscase Israel – allows a certain percentage of its population to disobey the laws the State
imposes on its own citizens. Looking especially at Israel - how can a religious group be
autonomous, and thus extract itself from society, while at the same time use the resourcesof the country and take part in governmental authoritative forums – as the coalition?

4. Concluding ObservationsFrancis Fukuyama in his recent volume titled Identity: The Demand for Dignity and thePolitics of Resentment, has indicated in this regard “that a National identity begins with ashared belief in the legitimacy of the country’s political system, whether that system is32

Ada Taggar Cohen: The World of the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox Community in the COVID-19 Era

democratic or not. Identity can be embodied in formal laws and institutions that dictate,for example, what the education system will teach children about their country’s past. […]It consists of the stories that people tell about themselves: where they came from, what
they celebrate, their shared historical memories, what it takes to become a genuine memberof the community.”6 This definition is crucial when looking at what was revealed during
the pandemic, i.e. the refusal of a large part of the population to identify itself with thecountry’s laws, not identifying itself with State values, having its separate system ofeducation as well as a system of communication and obedience which created the spreadof the pandemic and the inability of the medical system to respond to the pandemic spread.
The values and beliefs that stand in principle for these communities, created a situation
where these people say, “if God decided that I get sick and that I die, so be it”.7 The factthat authority derives from God through the rabbis, and not from scientific medical
authoritative institutions poses a great problem when confronting the spread of thepandemic in these communities.
* The project hosted a lecture of Dr. Joyce Dalshein, Associate Professor of Global Studies
at the Department of Global Studies of the University of North Carolina Charlotte, USAheld on January 10th, 2021. Dr. Dalsheim’s lecture on the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish
community is placed online. Its title: “Memory, Meaning, and Pandemic in Jewish UltraOrthodox Communities: What is Essential?”
Lecture’s abstract: “During times of crisis, marginalized communities often
suffer more than others. In Israel and elsewhere, Jewish Ultra-Orthodox communities
not only have high rates of COVID-19 infection, but are criticized for not following
public health protocols and are blamed for being hazards to the health of the public atlarge. This talk examines some of the cultural frameworks of mutual suspicion that
inform the relationships between majority cultures and the ultra-Orthodox. In order tounderstand these tensions, we need to think about collective memory and ask about what
it is that cultural groups consider essential.” Her last volume Israel Has a Jewish
Problem: Sovereignty, Secularism, and Self-Elimination. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Notes
1
For a detailed description of these changes see Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe, 17721881 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005). Material on the Ultra-Orthodoxcommunity in Israel especially in 2019 comes from The Yearbook of Ultra-Orthodox Society inIsrael, Assembled by Lee Cahaner and Gilad Malach; Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute33

Project COVID-19: Cremation or Burial

234567(RA), 2019. (downloaded from https://www.idi.org.il/media/13727/the-yearbook-of-ultraorthodox-society-in-israel-2019.pdf 2021/1/10). [Hebrew].
On March 26, 2020 the Israeli Institute for Democracy published an overview of the way inwhich the reaction of the Ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel can be understood. I will refer
to some of these reactions later on. (Downloaded fromhttp://fs.knesset.gov.il/23/Committees/23_cs_bg_570661.pdf 2021/1/10). [Hebrew].
“According to authorities, the most significant jumps involve neighborhoods of Brooklyn where
Orthodox Jewish populations are substantial, and coincided with gatherings linked to therecent holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.”(https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-virus-rebounds-in-new-york-ultra-orthodox-decry-stig
matization/ 2021/2/10)
Politically the government is under pressure from the Ultra-Orthodox parties, because it cannot
have a coalition without the Ultra-Orthodox parties. Although these people do not support theZionist case, since they live in a state declared a Jewish state, they have a history of joining thegovernment, not caring whether it is left or a right wing-nationalist, for their own benefit. On
the way Ultra-Orthodox vote in Israel see The Yearbook of Ultra-Orthodox Society in Israel,ibid. pp 74-80. As of the support of NY Ultra-Orthodox for Trump in last November’s elections(2020) see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0_t5k3jzxs (read 2021/1/10).
https://www.au.org/church-state/november-2020-church-state-magazine/people-events/hasidic-groups-resist-governors (read 2021/2/10).
According to a survey conducted in 2016, above 40% of Ultra-Orthodox do not see themselves
as part of the state of Israel, neither do they trust the police force. Basically, they see the police
as negative forces acting against their culture and religious beliefs, since the police represent
the secular State of the Zionists. For other people in Israel, the fact that this community not only
receives large sums of money from the government, but also increases the burden on the medical
institutions, creates further resentment.
Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (New York:Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), 126 (with footnote 2).
Israel in this regard may face a breakdown of its democracy as the percentage of its UltraOrthodox populations is going to increase to about 30% by the middle of the century, and having
a population that has nothing to do with the State’s general community identity will probablypose problems
Several articles appearing in newspapers on the Ultra-Orthodox(out of the many that appeared during the year, accessed last 2021/1/31)
From the Australian Journal The Conversation article by Joyce Dalsheim “Jewish History
Explains why Some Ultra-Orthodox Communities defy Coronavirus restrictions” April 27, 2020.
https://theconversation.com/jewish-history-explains-why-some-ultra-orthodox-communitiesdefy-coronavirus-restrictions-135292
From the New York Post, by Lee Brown, “London’s Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community has oneof the world’s highest COVID Rates” Feb. 3, 2021
https://nypost.com/2021/02/03/londons-ultra-orthodox-jewish-community-records-staggeringcovid-rates/
Many articles appeared In Israeli newspapers complaining about the way Ultra-orthodox
communities in Israeli cities reacted to the restrictions with violence:https://www.maariv.co.il/corona/corona-israel/Article-816571 (2021/1/21)

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