Israel muddled by coronavirus, school openings, High Holidays

By Ira Sharkansky

Ira Sharkansky

JERUSALEM — School, High Holidays, travel to Uman. They are all problematic, and causing squabbles for us, as well as the government of Ukraine with its Jewish President.

Most immediate is the opening of school, set for today. Until now we’ve been wondering about a teachers strike, the prospect of paying an extra several thousand teachers and aides to allow smaller classes, and how the various grades will be treated with respect to masks, teaching in class or from home, as well as the thousands of students still without computers or internet connections that would allow some kind of distant learning.

It’s all complicated by arguments as to which classes will be allowed without masks, and which will be required to wear masks while the classes are being held, but not at other times, and which will be taught partly in school and partly from home.

The ultra-Orthodox schools began a short while ago, at the beginning of Elul, and we’re not sure of what’s happening there. It depends on the rabbis of the various congregations, some of whom accept and others ignore the rulings of the Health Ministry.

All told, it’s a mess, so complicated that one doubts that principals, teachers, parents, kids, and even Education Ministry personnel can remember the details and apply them.

The government considered recommendations of  Ronni Gamzu, the Coronavirus “Czar,” but listened instead to the demands of Yoav Galant, the Education Minister. The Czar wanted to keep closed the schools of locales heavily hit by infections, but the Minister wanted them all opened on September 1.

We’ll see what this means for the future of the Czar.

A greater fury, if it is possible to measure the strength of the anger and the comments, concerns the onset of the religious holidays, and what they’ll mean for travel of the ultra-Orthodox and others who aspire to spend Rosh Hashana at the grave of Rabbi Nachman in Uman, Ukraine. At various times that’s meant a gathering of 30,000 or more in a town that depends on their annual visit. Now it would mean closeness and the spread of the virus, and then its passing to other Ukrainians and then to Israelis.

The Coronavirus Czar communicated with the President of Ukraine and arranged a closing of that country to outsiders for the month of September. That began a mad rush of advocates to get there earlier, as well as nasty comments about the “anti-Semitic Czar and his supporters in the government. Government ministers spoke to their constituents, saying that the Czar exceeded his authority, with the Prime Minister absolving himself of agreeing with him. Ultra-Orthodox ministers in the government as well as other activists are claiming foul, and urging a resignation of the Czar.

Meanwhile, he faces what is likely to be a stronger burst of upset over a plan to close things down for the Holy Days of Tishri. Presumably that could mean no synagogue services, and no gatherings at homes for festive meals except for the present residents of each home.

That is what happened for the Passover Seders. But both  President Reuben Rivlin and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu were later publicized as violating the rules. They both explained and apologized, but nonetheless provided their lousy examples.

Now we can expect something of the same.

Presently we’re waiting a while for a government decision. They’re hoping for a decline in infections, but that isn’t happening.

And will the religious and the ultra-Orthodox, plus all those others who gather at synagogues or outside of them for the prayers be content to stay at home?

Among the problems cited by the religious is the lack of control over political demonstrations. Arguably they are as dangerous as prayer with respect to the spreading of the virus. So far the police and courts have supported the right to demonstrate, and are waiting on decisions as to synagogue prayers.

Now the various demonstrations against the Prime Minister have reached 20,000, according to crowd estimates published in Ha’aretz.

That number included 2,000 of the ultra-Orthodox who want access to Uman. Yet we’re hearing that he’s pressuring Ukraine to allow entry of some who want to gather at Rabbi Nachman’s grave. Ukrainiams are said to be strong in opposition, and the pressure is adding to the potential–already prominent there–for anti-Semitism and their associating Jews with the spread of disease.

Currently we’re not reducing the numbers of infections. Daily they are in the range of 1,500 to more than 2,000 new cases, with various claims about the incidence of serious cases and those requiring breathing apparatuses. And there is an incidence of people refusing to be tested, or refusing to be confined if found to be infected. So who knows for sure?

The Czar is being hounded by government ministers and others, and has threatened resignation if his recommendations are ignored.

It’ll be affected by two of our population groups that are especially involved in the virus. Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox are both marginal with respect to adhering to health norms. Both are inclined to large weddings that provide the site of infections that spread outward. Both are also involved with large families and congested neighborhoods or towns. And both have a variety of leaders, some of whom impose controls with respect to masks and distancing, and others who ignore the obvious standards of good health.

Just before September began, Shaul Meridor, a ranking member of the Finance Minisrty in charge of budgeting resigned, and sent a blistering letter accusing Yisrael Katz, the Finance Minister, of cooking the books, fabricating data, and ignoring the advice of professionals in his Ministry. The Minister replied that all that was not true. And another Likudnik chimed in with his own severe criticism of the Finance Minister.

Is this another opening of conflict within Bibi’s party? That might get to him as the one responsible for all the government’s failures?

It’ll be a noisy, tense, exciting, and problematic month. Let’s see if we and others survive the commotion.

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Ira Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com