COVID-19 Forces Israel’s Religious Factions in Line

As the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in Israel, the state’s often squabbling political factions have agreed that they must take strident measures to impose specific restrictions on the country’s ultra-Orthodox Haredi community, which has been at the heart of multiple COVID-19 hotspots across Israel. This is in part because some members have resisted the government’s mandated social distancing requirements by continuing to congregate for holidays, prayers and other religious activities they deem vital to their values. But in doing so, they appear to have spread the virus within their community, prompting the Israeli government to place increasingly severe lockdown efforts on Haredi factions and religious rites in a bid to slow the spread. ...