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8 | SEPTEMBER 24 • 2020 

1942 - 2020

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week
jn

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How to reach us see page 12

essay

A Mystery: Why Do So Many Haredi 

Jews 
 Disregard the Pandemic?
A

s fervently observant 
Jews, the haredi 
Jewish community 
holds fidelity to Halachah 
(Jewish Law) as its central 
tenet. This 
attitude has 
often inspired 
me and other 
Jews across the 
whole spectrum 
of observance. 
All segments 
of the haredi 
community take pride in that 
fidelity. 
And yet a significant 
segment of the haredi 
community treats the 
COVID-19 pandemic as 
irrelevant to their lives. They 
do not wear masks; they do 
not practice distancing; they 
congregate in large groups 
at schools, religious services, 
weddings and, poignantly, 
funerals. 
This behavior constitutes 
a mystery and calls for 

analysis. 
The great codes of Judaism 
all require us to preserve 
health. Dangerous situations 
require us to take protective 
action — pikuah nefesh — 
even when doing so overrides 
nearly all other demands of 
Jewish law. An observant 
Jew must telephone the 
doctor on Shabbat, ride to 
the hospital on Yom Tov, eat 
on Yom Kippur to protect 
someone who is in danger 
or even possibly in danger. 
The COVID-19 pandemic 
certainly poses as great a 
danger to haredi Jews as to 
others. 
Yet when epidemiologists 
warn that we need to practice 
distancing, to wear masks 
and to avoid large indoor 
gatherings, this segment of 
the haredi community carries 
on, ignoring the dangers, not 
taking protective actions. 
Furthermore, city and 
state governments and, 

in some countries, the 
national governments, have 
mandated protective actions, 
and significant haredi 
populations have flouted 
those laws, regulations or 
recommendations. Jewish 
Law generally requires us to 
respect civil laws, especially 
when disrespect could 
lead onlookers to disdain 
us. Yet this segment of the 
haredi community seems 
unbothered by the image it 
projects to the environment. 
That disobedience 
constitutes a mystery. I 
tentatively propose two or 
three factors to explain this 
mysterious phenomenon. 
One factor, worldwide: 
haredi society sees itself as 
an insular community, with 
fidelity to its own mores, 
more-or-less unchanged 
through the centuries. In 
each country where it has 
flourished, haredi Jews 
have followed the traditions 

of their ancestors and the 
rulings of the rabbinic 
leaders, while scarcely 
paying attention to whatever 
government rules. 
In principle, haredi Jews 
say, governments come 
and go, but haredi society 
continues unchanged. Haredi 
society carries on even under 
hostile governments, which 
demand that we change our 
age-old practices. Thus, 
when a government agency 
demands that we alter our 
way of life, especially our 
religious observances, we 
stoically disregard their 
demands. The governor 
of Michigan or the health 
minister of Israel, like the 
czar of Russia, cannot get us 
to change where we recite 
our prayers. 
Another factor, specifically 
in the U.S.: A segment 
of the haredi community 
— and segments of other 
Jewish groups — have 

Louis 
Finkelman

continued on page 10

