{"id":8944,"date":"2021-01-31T22:01:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T05:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanjhisoch.com\/english\/?p=8944"},"modified":"2021-01-31T22:01:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T05:01:11","slug":"thousands-of-ultra-orthodox-jews-gather-for-rabbis-funeral-in-jerusalem-defy-pandemic-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanjhisoch.com\/english\/thousands-of-ultra-orthodox-jews-gather-for-rabbis-funeral-in-jerusalem-defy-pandemic-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews Gather for Rabbi’s Funeral in Jerusalem, Defy Pandemic Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
A huge crowd, many not wearing masks, packed the streets in Jerusalem for the funeral of 99-year-old Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, head of the influential Brisk yeshiva, or religious educational institute.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Sanjhi Soch Beauro \u2013<\/strong>Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews defied Israel’s coronavirus restrictions to attend a rabbi’s funeral on Sunday, prompting Defence Minister Benny Gantz to demand the community’s repeated breaking of lockdown rules must end.<\/p>\n

A huge crowd, many not wearing masks, packed the streets in Jerusalem for the funeral of 99-year-old Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, head of the influential Brisk yeshiva, or religious educational institute.<\/p>\n

Soloveitchik died earlier on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, or haredim, have been at the centre of the country’s struggles to control the spread of coronavirus, with some groups flagrantly defying lockdown rules, especially concerning school and synagogue closures.<\/p>\n

Police seeking to enforce the lockdown have in recent days clashed with haredim in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighbourhood and in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

While police were on hand for the rabbi’s funeral, they did not act to disperse crowds, an AFP photographer said.<\/p>\n

The funeral comes as Israel’s government is set to debate the extension of the country’s third national lockdown, due to expire at midnight.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supports a lockdown extension, has faced mounting criticism over what his opponents describe as a failure to ensure haredim comply with safety rules.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, a right-winger facing a difficult re-election contest in March, has relied on the loyalty of ultra-Orthodox political leaders to sustain his record 11 years in power.<\/p>\n

Gantz, Netanyahu’s rival and alternate prime minister in Israel’s collapsed unity government, has said he will not support a lockdown extension unless rules are evenly applied.<\/p>\n

This is what unequal enforcement looks like,” Gantz said on Twitter.<\/p>\n

“Millions of families and children are locked in their homes and abide by the rules while thousands of haredim crowd (a) funeral, most of them even without masks.<\/p>\n

“We will not agree to the continuation of an ineffective fake lockdown. Either everyone is locked down — or everyone opens. The days of indulgence are over,” Gantz said.<\/p>\n

Israel, a country of about 9 million, has recorded more than 640,000 coronavirus cases, including over 4,700 deaths.<\/p>\n

While the Jewish state continues to register several thousand new cases a day, it is also conducting a vaccination campaign widely regarded as the world’s fastest per capita, with more than 3 million people having received the first of two required jabs of the Pfizer vaccine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A huge crowd, many not wearing masks, packed the streets in Jerusalem for the funeral of 99-year-old Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, head of the influential Brisk yeshiva, or religious educational institute. Sanjhi Soch Beauro \u2013Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews defied Israel’s coronavirus restrictions to attend a rabbi’s funeral on Sunday, prompting Defence Minister Benny Gantz to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n