The lockdown saga: Haredim are the question

Lion, who from the beginning of the crisis opposed any measure that would unfairly single out the ultra-Orthodox sector, remained resolute in his beliefs, and three days later received new guidelines

By PEGGY CIDOR
A Haredi man walking with a mask in the neighborhood of Meaa Shearim (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
A Haredi man walking with a mask in the neighborhood of Meaa Shearim
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
A week before the Seder, Mayor Moshe Lion found himself stupefied by instructions submitted from the Health Ministry.
The decision to lock down all the haredi neighborhoods for at least the three coming weeks seemed to him the worst solution, and hence began intensive bargaining between Safra Square and the ministry. Lion soon found out that the neighborhoods were chosen not according to clear professional or epidemiologic criteria, but based on general information that the rate of contamination and illness from the virus was higher among them.
But Lion had alternative data showing that rates were also high in some non-haredi neighborhoods. The ministry responded, “We don’t have any precise criteria, but we have to stop the contamination.”
Lion, who from the beginning of the crisis opposed any measure that would unfairly single out the ultra-Orthodox sector, remained resolute, and three days later received new guidelines: “Lock down any neighborhood with a ratio of 1 contaminated or ill resident to 1,000 who are well.” This criterion applied to several of the haredi neighborhoods, but also to some non-haredi areas.
Then came the idea of dividing the city into seven quarters – but in doing so, a few neighborhoods with a low rate of contamination were also included. With Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (of Shas and a resident of the haredi bastion of Har Nof) breathing down his neck, Lion asked the Health Ministry to rethink the proposals and refrain from locking down only haredi neighborhoods.
Lion envisioned a large operation taking contaminated residents out of their homes; those exposed to ill people; and those who were only mildly ill but did not require hospitalization.
“Soldiers, male and female, are not exactly the right people to convince haredim to leave their homes and move to one of the corona hotels,” commented city council member Chaim Epstein (Bnei Torah) who proposed making use of the haredi staff of United Hatzalah instead.
The bargaining, which indicates that the Health Ministry has little understanding of how this city lives and breathes, concluded with a decision to lock down only neighborhoods with 1:1,000 ill-to-healthy ratios, starting Sunday.