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| Protesters in Boro Park (Slate) |
The most recent complaint along these lines is the that their communities have been singled out for rebuke by the city and state governments in New York for violating COVID-19 restrictions when other communities were just as guilty if not worse of doing the same thing.
On the surface I have to admit that it seemed that way. But I completely reject the notion that it has anything to do with antisemitism. It has more to do with how this community has reacted to the pandemic. Although clearly not every Charedi Jew is guilty of this. But just as clearly there are massive numbers of Charedi Jews that have been treating pandemic based restrictions with ridicule and scorn.
I hasten to add that there are plenty of non Charedi Jews that are just as scornful. But at the same time, an event like that massively attended Satmar wedding that completely ignored all mitigation requirements has yet to be matched by any other segment of Orthodoxy.
There are many other examples of that kind of attitude. Including secret classes held someone’s basement; or opening a school through the back door while pretending to be closed at the front door; or a funeral of a prominent Chasidic figure attended by many unmasked Chasidim, or perhaps the most egregious of all – an out of control protest that involved a public mask burning and the incitement of a crowd by Heshy Tischler into beating a Charedi reporter for criticizing his community’s unwillingness to comply with those rules.
With so many events like these, it’s hard not to notice the level of noncompliance by this community. Not that the same thing isn’t happening outside of the Charedi world – or even outside the Jewish world. But it is the deception or the outright flaunting of those rules as by the most religious looking Jews among us that is particularly grievous.
When you present yourself like that to the world and then you go about flouting all the laws it is hard not to single that out.
These points were driven home by Hannah Dreyfus in a Slate article where she interviews Blimi Marcus, a Charedi nurse practitioner that lives in Boro Park about her experiences:
In October, Blima Marcus, a nurse practitioner and ultra-Orthodox resident of Borough Park, Brooklyn, received a call from a close friend. The woman’s teenage son was showing COVID-19 symptoms—a headache, fever, and decreased appetite—after being exposed to a positive case of the virus at a local synagogue where he prayed daily.
“She wanted to know if she should get him tested,” said Marcus, 35, who works in palliative care at an oncology center but also serves in the unofficial role of medical consultant within her Orthodox Jewish community. The teenager had been continuing his regular activities, including attending synagogue. “I advised her to get her son tested immediately and instruct him to strictly quarantine until he receives the results.” Her friend replied incredulously: “ ‘You try keeping a teenage boy home all day.’ ”
“I had nothing more to say,” …“It was clear to me that she wasn’t prepared to quarantine.” Was she disappointed in her friend of 25 years, I asked? “No,” said Marcus. “Why should I expect more from her than from the rest of the community?She has watched as her neighbors dismiss the virus and publicly defy safety measures intended to contain it. She has fought against the idea that her community has reached “herd immunity,” only to see it gain traction.
Of course Mrs. Marcus also understands that her community feels they are being singled out and that this might be the reason they have reacted in such unacceptable ways. Reasons that include all of the above plus a recent spate of violent antisemitic attacks by actual rabid antisemites. But I’m sure she would agree that although this helps to explain it - it is still no excuse to ignore her advice.
However, I think there is more to it than that. There is an underlying ignorance and arrogance. The refusal by Charedim like those in her home base of Boro Park to be properly educated about the medical science (or any secular matters) ...and an attitude about themselves as the most religious God fearing Jews of all - dismisses the views of non Jews as false no matter how educated they might be. That - plus a centuries long history of violent and deadly European antisemitism which they apply to all non Jews - and it isn’t that hard to figure out why they behave this way.
Ignorance is a terrible thing. When combined with arrogance it can become deadly. It is also true that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Like the claim that they already have ‘herd immunity’ because so many of them had COVID when the pandemic first hit back in early spring. That flies in the face of medical science. They are still at high risk of exposure, illness and death.
I can only imagine how exasperating it must be for Mrs. Marcus who actually does have an education. A good one. Especially in an area where it counts the most right now, medical science. As was the case last year when:
…a measles outbreak raged in Orthodox Brooklyn, culminating in the official declaration of a public health emergency in select Brooklyn ZIP codes and the shuttering of local yeshivas.
small informational sessions for ultra-Orthodox women afraid to vaccinate their children, trying to stop a neighborhood “measles party”
I fear that the once COVID vaccinations become available, the anti-vaxxers will strike again. If they are in any ways successful, that does not bode well for actually achieving herd immunity. And driving the number of COVID cases down to levels low enough so that our lives can go back to normal. Especially now when so many people incorrectly fear that vaccines are being approved too rapidly - without sufficiently studying their safety and efficacy. If herd immunity is not achieved COVID may end up killing a lot more people. The sad thing is that anti-vaxxers will not be the only ones that suffer. So will those they they convince to join them.
Like I said. Ignorance and arrogance is a deadly combination. I just hope we don’t end up learning that the hard way.
