This is being reposted from a Facebook Group – Frum Watch. It is being reprinted in its entirety with permission from the author, Rabbi Yossi Newfield.
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Haredistan – What Went Wrong?
From Bnei Brak to Boro Park, the haredi community has had higher case numbers, higher hospitalization rates, and higher deaths rate than the surrounding areas. The question is why? We believe the very nature of the haredi community is the cause.
Inevitably, wherever there is a critical mass of haredim, the community feels that it can disregard secular laws and norms. Sometimes this is done openly; other times there is a great deal of dissembling, with community apologists such as Avi Shafran working overtime. Before the coronavirus pandemic the disregard and rejection of civil society may not have been as pronounced, but it always lurked just below the surface, waiting to raise its ugly head.
An example of this is the haredi (especially hasidic) self-ghettoization and their rejection of state mandated minimal secular education standards. The resulting intellectual isolation of their communities is considerable and it is accompanied by severe side effects, such as systemic fraud, rampant sexual abuse, and poverty.
But so long as the harm was confined to the haredi community itself, the civil authorities from Israel to London to New York looked the other way. They reasoned that if a community wants to stay ignorant, poor, and a refuge for sexual predators, so be it. It’s not our problem.
However, the moment the pandemic struck, these same civil authorities began demanding that the haredi community abide by the social distancing guidelines promulgated by their respective health departments.
To their shock and amazement, they were surprised to learn that haredi society was not willing to curtail their communal way of life, even in the face of a once in a century world-wide pandemic. But we were not surprised in the least. Once a society is allowed to disregard civil laws and norms for decades, it is no wonder that they will not become normal law abiding citizens overnight.
Let’s look at how things progressed:
At first secular society convinced themselves that the haredim in Israel were trying to follow the guidelines, but they just couldn’t on account of their large families and crowded living conditions. Then came the grand wedding in Belz. The Belzer rebbe brazenly ordered that his grandson’s wedding continue as planned, covid be damned. Thousands of men packed together to witness the chuppah. At that point, it became clear to the rest of Israel that the disregard of the guidelines was pre-meditated and intentional.
Why?
The Belzer rebbe decided that his sect would not follow state mandated guidelines out of fear for the spiritual welfare of his flock or out of fear of the breakdown of communal life. Pick either reason. In haredi eyes they are one and the same.
But Belz is not alone. The haredim in Bnei Brak, Meah Shearim, Boro Park, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights have all made the same decision. They will not follow the guidelines because the guidelines disrupt their daily prayer and torah learning schedule, tisches, weddings — their communal life and routine.
This disregard for coronavirus guidelines does not only jeopardize the health of haredi communities, it puts the surrounding non-haredi communities in grave danger. The haredim are either so used to getting their own way or so insensitive as to be unaware of the reaction that’s bound to come.
Back to the present, in New York Governor Cuomo ordered the shuls in Boro Park and Flatbush closed for Simchat Torah because of rising Covid-19 case numbers. Instead of accepting the executive order, Agudas Israel sued him in Federal Court. This is the same Agudas Israel who sued the New York State Education Department for having the nerve to order hasidic yeshivas to teach the English language!
The chickens have come home to roost. Even before the virus escaped from Wuhan, the haredi community was on a dangerous and unsustainable path. Covid-19 just made this apparent for all to see.
While a last minute correction of course by haredi communal leaders may avoid total disaster, we are afraid that this will not occur and we will all suffer because of it.
By Rabbi Yossi Newfield
LOSTMESSIAH 
Not at all surprising, merely the ultimate, predictable endgame where rationality in Judaism is abandoned; as the Rambam described so clearly in the Guide, when this occurs, the absolutely impossible appears as totally possible & normal etc; so for a tiny but catastrophic example, learn some torah & you will be protected from covid…apparently it didn’t help mr. “daas torah”…
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Interesting. I’ve posted her and on Failed Messiah for years – now some robot system decided to delete my substantive post, but left the one of a couple of minutes again. How’s that work, LM?
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What happened? Please advise? We may have accidentally deleted something. Please repost whatever appears to have been taken down.
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We sorted this out. Not sure why. We have a lot of parameters for holding back posts so it may be on our end. Thanks for the comments.
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There’s a reason that the rate of young people believing that we Jews caused the Holocaust is higher in NY State then elsewhere in the country: exposure to the aggressive arrogance, insularity and civic nonparticipation by the Haredi types in the state. They’re easy to see, their attitudes towards non-Haredim and towards civil society as a whole make them despised. One of these days they’ll push too far in just the wrong town or neighborhood and will find out the hard way from their antagonized non-Haredi fellow citizens and neighbors just how much theyre despised and resented. To too many Americans “Jew” calls up the image of a Hasid in full 18th century regalia, looking like an alien and acting like one.
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This was caught in the spam file. We just needed to approve. Thanks for the comments.
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In Montreal they are seeing this phenomenon also. In Belgium, the government has been trying to limit a “Jewish presence” by limiting rules regarding ritual slaughter and circumcision. This is not the only place where this is happening.
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If your arragont enough to really make a joke that the ultra orthodox caused the holocaust refuah shleima to you. What will you say when certain communities come rioting in the so called ghetto neighborhoods. New York is becoming uncivil and unsafe. Today’s young liberals don’t believe there was a holocaust because they’re not taught about it. A ger who grew up in jersey told me that he never even knew the holocaust existed because he never heard about in School. So defend the liberals that don’t care to believe that anti semetisim exists and ignore the writing on the wall when a virtual ghetto was erected in the ultra orthodox community’s. Whether you think that that the ultra orthodox are insane or not does not change the underlying issue. The bottom line is that 30 years ago this would’ve never have happened and no mayor or governor would do this in fear of being called an anti semite defend your own people because we all have the same rate.
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“If your arragont enough to really make a joke”
In deference to LM, I will not comment on what in your reply opening contains at least two clues as to the sector of Judaism you come from, but without knowing SML, I am quite certain he/she was not joking…
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Yochanan, Covid is not about liberal or conservative. And this President is the closest we have come to a fascist dictator as any in US history. If you look to Hitler, Gehring, Mussolini, they all had a pattern and practice, one that Hitler quoted. The best way to get people to follow you is to rot the entire society from within. You probably don’t see that, do you? Trump is doing exactly and precisely what he wants by creating civil unrest and the ultra-Orthodox are ignoring the dangers that Covid presents and are running roughshod over civil law. The Ger, the Satmar, the Bobov – this are POST-WWII constructs. Jews did not behave this way pre-WWII. There is no comparison that your entire thesis can raise. The movement of the religious into civil societies created these constructs and are creating civil and violent unrest now. It is a vicious circle. Hitler convinced Nazi German that the Jews were to be feared, they were stealing jobs, land, schools. You no longer need Hitler for that, the ultra-Orthodox are drawing that picture beautifully. To top it all off, they are savagely brutalizing their own simply because he draws attention to the lack of Covid-19 restrictions. Is this a society to be loved? Is this a light unto nations?
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Guess Akismet decided my recent post is spam – it vanished. Let’s see if this one does too.
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Will check. If it was caught in the filter, we will approve.
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There’s a reason that the rate of young people believing that we Jews caused the Holocaust is higher in NY State then elsewhere in the country: exposure to the aggressive arrogance, insularity and civic nonparticipation by the Haredi types in the state. They’re easy to see, their attitudes towards non-Haredim and towards civil society as a whole make them despised. One of these days they’ll push too far in just the wrong town or neighborhood and will find out the hard way from their antagonized non-Haredi fellow citizens and neighbors just how much theyre despised and resented. To too many Americans “Jew” calls up the image of a Hasid in full 18th century regalia, looking like an alien and acting like one.
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