Horsehair worms are parasites. As a larva, one species of the horsehair worm, Spinochordodes tellinii, attaches itself onto grasshoppers. Inside the grasshopper, the worm absorbs nutrients from the host body and spends several months growing. When it comes time for the worm to transform into an aquatic adult, the worm hijacks the host grasshopper's nervous system and manipulates it to jump into the water and drown itself. Once in the water, the worm exits the host carcass and swims off in pursuit of a mate. (https://www.wired.com/2014/05/absurd-creature-horsehair-worm/)
Like the grasshopper, our community seems to be bent on self-destruction.
Today marks seven months since Governor Cuomo confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in New York. Living with the reality of COVID-19 has been hard on everyone. Still, there is one pain that is specifically experienced by rational, intelligent Jews: Watching their community and leadership fail again and again and again.
The First Wave:
COVID-19 started hitting the Jewish community about a week before Purim. Yet, despite Rabbi Fink, the Rabbi of the Young Israel synagogue in New Rochelle, being the epicenter of a large outbreak that caused significant community spread, Purim was business as usual. A friend of mine in North Jersey broke his quarantine to deliver misholoch monos around town. A local Rav I visited spent his entire day entertaining groups of dancing drunk bochurim falling all over each other in his house. Quietly, the virus was spreading.
As cases started soaring, the government began cracking down. No more shul. No more mikvah. No more weddings. Out-of-town communities quickly fell in line, but Lakewood, Boro Park, Williamsburg, Monroe, Monsey, and New Square fought mighty against the Governor's orders. In Williamsburg, the mikvahs were packed, and people ignored the desperate voice messages from Hatzalah members begging them to stay home. Chassidish yeshivas remained open, going into full “playing dreidel in the cave” mode to hide their activities. Buses would be too obvious, so parents were instructed to walk their children to school discreetly. When these schools were forcibly shut down, individual Rebbeaim hosted their class in their houses, with the school leaving instructions to the parents on their voicemail.
Bodies started piling up, and the restrictions began mounting. But our leaders and institutions kept flouting the restrictions. Police in Lakewood had to continually stop weddings and eventually funerals because people kept congregating in violation of the law. Lakewood Mesivta, under the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Burstein, stayed open with 150 talmidim despite the lockdown. When the Admor of Tolaas Yaakov, Harav Chaim Mertz, died of COVID-19, thousands of Chassidim defied the lockdown to accompany him. Shuls and stores would lock their front doors but write signs in Yiddish to enter through the back door.
Throughout this all, with a few notable exceptions, the Charadi leadership actively promoted disobedience. Rav Chayim Kanievsky was filmed telling bochurim to ignore COVID-19. Later, once the lockdown was fully in effect, Rav Chaim tried to get the Yated to publish a letter urging the yeshivas to stay open. Rav Edelstein had to intercept the message and stop him. Rav Chayim also later caused quite an uproar when he told bochurim not to test for COVID-19 once yeshivas reopened.
Reb Sholom Ber Sorotzkin was filmed singing with his students that they will defy any government lockdown. Just recently, Rav Shaul Klien, a talmid of Rav Wosner, and one of the most prominent medical poskim alive wrote a long teshuva undermining the health ministries COVID-19 guidelines.
In America, the Chassidic Rebbes consistently ignored the restrictions until they were forced into compliance. The Rabbonim in Lakewood were far more compliant, but they also dragged their feet. Most of the Lakewood and Brooklyn Rabbonim, Roshi Yeshivas, and Poskim were silent for far too long, allowing minyanim and yeshivas to continue long after MO and out-of-town Rabbonim around the country were frantically urging their misplallim to stay home. While Reform and Conservative camps responsibly announced closings, the Agudah furiously lobbied Cuomo to allow Orthodox camps to open during the summer. At the end of this post is a timeline, culled from the Facebook page Frum Watch, documenting the community's disregard for its health and safety during the first wave.
The Second Wave:
Hundreds died during the first wave. But once the deaths started dropping, the Ultra-Orthodox community promptly returned to their old ways. In August and September, mask-wearing in supermarkets dropped to below 50 percent. Smaller stores fared even worse, with almost no one wearing masks. Every time I walked into a shul, no one was wearing masks or social distancing. There are hundreds of shuls in Lakewood, each with a Rav at its helm. Yet, no Rav publicly stood up to demand compliance with the Governor's orders. On Shabbos, my shul would hold packed kiddushim. The only people wearing masks were the non-Jewish waiters.
Weddings resumed, and predictably, a second wave has arrived. By time Rosh Hashana rolled around, several people on my block had COVID-19. Still, the entire community packed together for two days in shul to daven. No one wore masks. The handful of people with COVID-19 davened in a tent outside. On Yom Kippur, the number of COIVD positive people milling outside my shul had tripled. Still, almost no one wore masks. Now, Sukkos is here. People are starting to die again. Lakewood has become the biggest hotspot in the entire state. Today, Lakewood’s COVID-19-19 positivity rate hits 27%, far above the statewide average of 3%. In New York, all the zip codes with frum communities are skyrocketing. We are right back where we started. (https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/us/new-york-city-COVID-19-orthodox-jewish/index.html) Nevertheless, hundreds of young couples plan on going away to their parents for Sukkos. Like the grasshopper drowning itself in the river, we are committing collective suicide.
The Outrage And The Coverups:
To understand what is happening in our community, it is helpful to imagine concentric circles, with each inner layer representing a segment of the community with (1) a higher degree of religious fundamentalism, and (2) with less exposure to the outside community. See the (simplistic) diagram below:
The frum community can be broken down into far deeper and more nuanced gradations. But this basic breakdown represents a rough approximation of various responses to the pandemic. As the epidemic developed, the less fundamentalist communities closer to the diagram's outer edge quickly responded responsibly. However, the communities closer to the middle of the circle responded slower and continuously flaunted the COVID-19 restrictions. While most of Lakewood was shut down at the beginning of March, the more extreme yeshivish community was still pushing to maintain open bati midrashim and shul attendance. Simultaneously, while Lakewood was mostly complying with the lockdown, communities deeper in the circle were fighting the rules, sending their children to cheder, and operating shuls with impunity.
Furthermore, once the first wave passed, compliance with mask-wearing and social distancing guidelines began faltering from the outside in. The more fundamentalist and isolated the community, the quicker they began gathering together in shul, forgetting the old restrictions and disregarding mask-wearing and social distancing behavior. As far as they were concerned, Corona was over, and everything was back to pre-COVID-19 days.
Those on the outside circles looked on in horror. A swelling of anger and disgust rose in the more rational communities. On social media and amongst their friends, the anger was palpable, "What the hell was wrong with these Rebbes, holding massive tishim in the middle of a pandemic! Has Rav Chayim Kanievsky lost his mind!"
Simultaneously, the Agudah and the frum media, aware of the massive negative attention their community was drawing, went into full holocaust-denial-level revisionist-history PR mode. How DARE you accuse our community of non-compliance! Sure, 2,500 Chassidim just swarmed the streets for a funeral while they do not have enough Chevra Kadisha to bury their dead, but singling us out is CLASSIC ANTI SEMITISM! Here is a picture of people on the beach, why don’t you go after them, Nazi!!!
While this approach seems to have successfully created a counter-narrative for people without direct exposure to the frum community, the obvious revisionism infuriated those with direct contact with the community- both Jew and non-Jew alike. The local population who shared spaces with the frum community were outraged at the denial of the problem and quickly grew exasperated at anti-Semitism claims. “We are not anti-Semites, we just don’t want to die because we are shopping in the same Costco as you.”
Perhaps the most upsetting part of the coverup by the frum news outlets, councilmen, and Agudah was that there was always an element of truth that they latched onto, making their dishonesty all the more pernicious. Of course, when looked at in its broadest form, most of the Jewish community was being compliant—the issue was with the inner circle, the tens of thousands of Chassidim in Boro Park, Williamsburg, KJ, and elsewhere who were disregarding the rules. The problem was with the stunning silence of the rabbonim. Of course, when things got crazy, the Rabbonim eventually woke up and issued proclamations asking the Olam to follow the guidelines. It is no kuntz to point to those proclamations and pretend that this was always the rabbinical position. It wasn’t. The Gedolim acted far too late, and given the lifecycle of the pandemic, timing is everything. By the time that the Gedolim began taking COVID-19 seriously, the epidemic had already spread far and wide in our community, and all we could do was watch helplessly as the “Baruch Dayan Emes” announcements began pouring in.
Why Did This Happen?
It is extremely easy to point a finger at the Gedolim and shout that they are murders; but the truth is complicated. Our community—and our leadership—failed spectacularly. Yet, COVID-19 represented a perfect storm, exposing key weaknesses in our community. Here are eight factors intrinsic to our community that combined to create this tragedy.
1 - We distrust science
the more radical communities in the frum world ascribe to ideas that are not supported by science. The world is 5780 years old. Giants roamed the earth 4,000 years ago. Magic works. Demons (shadim) exist. God flooded the whole world 4,500 years ago. The way the community has defended their assertions despite the scientific community's protestations is by dismissing the entire enterprise of science: science shmience, evolution shemvalusiton. Universities become seen as bastions of kefirah, and life was viewed solely through a mystical lens. It is no surprise that Rav Malkiel Kotler, Rav Shmuel Meir Katz, Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky, and Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, all leaders in the yeshivish community, are staunchly anti-vaxxers. Vast swaths of the Chassidish and ultra-yeshivish society reject mainstream medicine, relying on whatever vitamins, alternative medicine, mikubalim, or quackery is in vogue at any given moment.
Once science is discarded, magical thinking propagates. Why trust an epidemiologist when everything is bi’yad Hashem. This leads to Rabbi Arush assuring the world that only Goyim get COVID-19 (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=511150522902312) or Jewish newspapers featuring huge two-page ads with Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz promising that davening with a minyan is surefire protection from Coronavirus. (“I promise you – with the bracha of a Kohen – someone who davens with a minyan is like he’s in a protected room, a bunker. It’s a bomb shelter – nothing will happen to him, not to him and not to anyone in his family. Have mercy on yourselves and you can test this. Whoever davens with a minyan, [the virus] won’t have any control over him.”) (https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/1835553/watch-it-mekubal-harav-gamliel-rabinowitz-daven-with-a-minyan-coronavirus-wont-affect-you-your-family.html) The skepticism and hostility towards the scientific enterprise provide a backdrop to explain why the community ignored the alarm being raised by the medical community.
2 - The government is viewed with suspicion
Every Chassidish boy has been raised with countless stories of “The Evil Poritz” and the downtrodden Jew. For centuries, the Polish, Hungarian, and Russian Jewish communities suffered extreme abuse at the hands of the government. They were forcibly impoverished, blamed for everything that went wrong, kidnapped and held for ransom, and treated with extreme hostility for hundreds of years. Then, just when things started looking up, we had a Holocaust. In Chassidic communities, the severe cultural trauma created by this national history carried over after the WWII and, on some level, the government (and most non-Jews) are always considered the enemy.
The Chassidish community’s suspicion towards the government is compounded exponentially when the government issues directives that undermine religious observance. Every Jewish child is raised with a cultural legacy that glorifies the sacrifices made to preserve Yiddishkeit in the face of the hostility of Christian Europe. Since the times of the Greeks, our ancestors gladly gave up their lives al kiddush Hashem than violate one letter in the Torah. When the government tells our community to shutter our shuls and our chadarim, it is hard not to automatically perceive this “decree” as a gezaras shamad that must be resisted at all costs.
3 - The over-reliance on Daas Torah
Sometime in the past two hundred years, Klal Yisroel became fixated with the idea that one must subjugate all their critical thinking skills and blindly follow Rabbinic authority. This expansion of Rabbinical leadership grew to encompass all areas of life. Similar to Papal infallibility, Yidden embraced the idea that Hashem guides every act of the Gedolim, and whatever they say is binding. (See http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2014/06/happy-100th-birthday-daas-torah.html) It does not matter that Rav Chaim is 89-years-old and has minimal access to the outside world; his word is Kodesh Kodoshim. Period. This blind reliance creates a massive vulnerability when “Daas Torah” makes mistakes.
4 - The Gedolim live in echo chambers and have no oversight:
Rav Belsky often expressed his disdain for ‘hamishe hechsherim.’ “Who is watching the watchers?” he would ask. He would often point out that Nach writes that King David’s son, Adonyahu ben Chagis, went astray because no one ever questioned him, demanding, “madua kacha a’sisa” – “explain and justify your actions.” Without oversight, even the most scrupulous person will eventually fall.
Unfortunately, there is no one watching our Gedolim. When the Lubavitcher Rebbe decided to tacitly endorse his radical followers who want to crown him as Moshiach, was there anyone to tell him, hey, you are making a terrible mistake? When the Satmar Rebbe found out about the extermination of Poland's Jewish communities and still refrained from telling his Chassidim to save themselves, instead clandestinely securing visas for himself and his close circle, was there anyone there to call him out for his actions? (https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/satmar-rebbe-1) When Rav Chaim Kanievsky threw his support behind a vicious child abuser despite the mountain of evincing against him, did anyone have the chutzpah to tell the Sar HaTorah that he was making a horrible mistake? (http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2010/03/Gedolim-and-leadership.html) For that matter, when Rabbi Bleskly harshly shut down the accusers of Rabbi Kolko, was there someone who could stand against him pointing out his terrible mistake? (https://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/belsky-harmed-kolko-and-his-victims-family/)
The reality is that our Gedolim surround themselves with adoring admirers, talmidim, and Chassidim. Their word is final and they have no checks and balances. No board of directors that they must justify their actions. No oversight committee to give them pause before they make a decision. Even the court of public opinion holds little sway. Most Gedolim are shielded from public scrutiny, with layers of gabbiem restricting general access and information. Does Rav Chaim even know the damage his irresponsible proclamations cost? We will never know. This lack of oversight of our leaders, combined with an attitude that whatever they do is guided by Ruach HaKodesh, creates the perfect storm of horribleness. When the Belzer Rebbe decided that he wants to have a wedding with thousands of guests in the middle of a pandemic, who amongst his followers dared open their mouth to him? He is the Rebbe, you shagetz!
5 - We are Hyper-sensitive towards anti-Semitism
As America got more culturally attuned and sensitized, Frum activists realized that they had a secret weapon, an ace, a nuclear option if you will, that allows them to win any public quarrel– simply claim the other party is motivated by anti-Semitism! You are upset that thousands of us are moving into your community and destroying your way of life; well, congratulations, you are an anti-Semite. Are you upset that we only vote to advance our own community’s interest, well, you’re an anti-Semite. (https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2020/08/18/orthodox-jewish-group-accuses-naacp-lawyers-anti-semitism/3391704001/) I am not trying to say that there are no anti-Semites out there. Anyone who has spent a bit of time on social media is painfully aware of huge breeding grounds of anti-Semitism. But life is nuanced. Our communities are not perfect. In fact, we are often relatively insensitive towards our neighbors, and at some point, our political representatives have lost all perspective. Not every criticism of our community is proof of anti-Semitism. Was Di Blasio wrong for singling out our community in a tweet? Maybe. But we had just put everyone's lives at risk by gathering in the thousands. When we over deploy the anti-Semitism card, we sound like idiots. Worse, we immunize ourselves from taking criticism and changing our behavior.
Unfortunately, our hyper-sensitivity towards anti-Semitism came out in full force when people took to the streets to protest Gorge Floyd's terrible murder. Suddenly our feelings were vindicated. Why didn’t De Blasio or Cuomo shut down the BLM protests?! Ah ha, proof that he was discriminating against us! What a Nazi! In horrific displays of racial insensitivity, Chassidim held weddings, bringing BLM posters to “Kasher” the event. Pointing to the BLM protests become the immediate counter to any attempt to stop Jews from clustering and spreading the virus. Of course, there are huge differences between the protests and the actions of the Jewish community. The protestors almost all wore masks, socially distanced, were outside, and were during the day. Because of this, the protests did not lead to an increase in infections. (https://www.healthline.com/health-news/black-lives-matter-protests-didnt-contribute-to-COVID-1919-surge#No-evidence-of-protest-spread) Yidden, on the other hand, were gathering together in shul three times a day, without masks, breathing on each other for extended periods of time, indoors, often without adequate ventilation. Still, the damage was done. Once the community felt they were being picked on and singled out, it became much more difficult for anyone to influence their behavior.
6 - We are exposed to limited (and exclusively Republican) media
Many yeshivish and Chassidish families will not allow a non-Jewish newspaper into their home. Heck, many yeshivish families will not let Mishpacha magazine into their home. (Don’t even think about Ami magazine) News is accessed strictly through Jewish radio and media sources. This lack of broader media exposure makes it difficult for the yeshivish and Chassidish community members to get an accurate picture of what is happening globally. Everything they hear or read is filtered through the editorial decision making of a select few members.
This issue was compounded by the fact that almost all frum news outlets are solidly Republican. In the recent past, the Republican party has pushed a strong socially conservative position, primarily through the lens of fundamentalist Christian beliefs. They fought against equality for the LGBT community, crusaded against abortion, defended teaching creationism in school, and other issues that closely mirror the frum community's positions. The republican bias in the frum media and, in turn, in the frum community, had a disastrous effect when the pandemic arrived. For utterly insane reasons, Trump decided that it made sense to play down the pandemic and consistently undermine Dr. Fauchi and the CDC. (https://time.com/5887355/trump-downplayed-coronavirus-danger/) In turn, Trumps supporters and many in the Republican party did not take the pandemic as seriously as democrats (or the scientific community.) (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-and-democrats-see-COVID-19-19-very-differently-is-that-making-people-sick/) Predictably, the frum community was very receptive of the Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity “it's just a flu/barely anyone is getting sick” narrative, leading them to disregard the warnings to wear masks and practice social distancing.
7 -Fundamentalist religionists have a propensity towards believing conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories are attractive because they offer a packaged explanation for what is often very complex realities. They also provide clear villains and help people overcome the fear of the unknown. Unfortunately, it seems that the more fundamentalist your religious beliefs, the more likely you are to accept the truth of a conspiracy theory. (See https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279970846_Conspiracy_theories_as_conduits_of_fundamentalist_knowledge or https://instrumentofmercy.com/2020/05/07/why-your-christian-friends-and-family-members-are-so-easily-fooled-by-conspiracy-theories/ )
When viewing the Chassidish and yeshivish communities, this propensity to accept conspiracy theories is turbocharged by the woeful lack of education or exposure to the real world. When someone claims that the pandemic is just the ‘Dems’ way of shutting down the economy to get rid of Trump or that the hospitals are secretly killing patients, your average Chusid or Yungerman is not equipped with the epistemological tools or relevant background to critically evaluate the claim. When Dr. Zelanko proclaimed that COVID was curable with Zinc and Hydroxychloroquine, the Chassidish and yeshivish communities were primed to accept this information and ill-equipped to evaluate their inability to pass judgment on the truth of these claims.
8 - Our education has a strong emphasis on legal rigidity and didacticism
Before Pesach, a Jew can stuff his house with chometz. Why? Because technically, it will be sold to a non-Jew. A person can lend his friend money and charge interest, as long as technically, the loan is formed as a “business arrangement.” These sorts of legal technicalities abound in Jewish law, and anyone who has spent time in kollel eventually begins thinking in these formalistic terms. Unfortunately, real-life often does not neatly track with rigid legal definitions. But sometimes Yidden occasionally carry over this legal mindset into the real world. “As long as I am ‘chal’ wearing a mask, the fact that it does not cover my nose is irrelevant—I am ‘masked.’” “We can have yeshiva as long as it is legally called a daycare center.” “We can have camp as long as it is classified as an orphanage.” “We can have this wedding as long as we put up labels calling it a BLM protest.”
(Sure, these distinctions are often drawn with an element of cynicism, with the violator trying to point out the incoherence of the law—but that criticism itself arises due to an overly rigid legal outlook. If the government decides to let daycares stay open, pointing out the injustice of refusing to allow shuls at the same time is misplaced.)
9 - Large families plus limited technology primed families to reject the lockdown
Yeshivish and Chassidish communities tend to have large families. Birth control is often discouraged, and many believe that Moshiach will not come until all the souls that need to be created are born. Additionally, due to fears of exposing their group to heresy and pornography, internet access and technology is tightly regulated. (My children's school would not accept our children unless we strictly filtered all our computes and phones.) Even once schools were shut down, the Rabbonim refused to allow children to continue class via Zoom. The logic was explained in a mass letter to the community signed by the Rabbonim. They believed that exposing children to the internet's utility would create a monster that would only end in tragedy.
Because of the large family sizes and the limited ability to access the internet, many yeshivish and Chassidish families struggled mightily to retain their sanity during the lockdown. As much as we hate it, almost everyone uses videos as a virtual pacifier to entertain our children when we need to function. Frum families do not have that option. Even those that do engage their children with digital media will not allow their children to watch non-Jewish content. There are only so many times your child can watch your wedding video or Uncle Moshe’s pizza song before they stop being entertained. These factors made adhering to the lockdown protocol incredibly taxing on the yeshivish and Chassidish communities. This pressure created a bias that made these communities receptive to sources claiming that the pandemic was overblown, or that it was better to lift the lockdown than to keep everyone in limbo.
Supplementary Timeline of COVID-19 Lockdown Violations:
I include this timeline because I know that no matter what I say, there will always be apologists who will vociferously deny everything I have said. They will claim that the frum community followed the lockdown guidelines and that it is all one big hoax. Fortunately, the Frum Watch Facebook page has been documenting the frum community's apathy and disregard for the COVID-19 violations since the pandemic arrived on our shores. Here is a sampling of some links that he provided. The next time someone tells you that the frum community always complied with the CDC's guidelines—spend a few minutes going through the Frum Watch Facebook page.
March 12
Yeshivos And Day Schools Should Remain Open Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic
The Torah Umesorah Vaad Roshei Yeshiva has released the following statement:
We have been asked, in light of the pandemic spread of the terrible coronavirus, whether yeshivas and day schools should close down until the danger of infection has passed.
It is our opinion, at least as of now, and at least in cities or municipalities where public and private schools are not required to close, that yeshivos and day schools should remain open. The koach haTorah generated by tinokos shel bais rabban is inestimable, and is urgently needed in times like these.
March 15
Despite 1000 people being put in quarantine, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a leading authority in Haredi Jewish society in Israel and abroad, has decided that studies in Yeshivot and Talmudei Torah should be held as usual.
March 17
Over 100 people test positive in Boro Park and Williamsburg.
March 18
4 arrested after ultra-Orthodox wedding violates coronavirus restrictions
March 18
Rabbi Arush tells people that only non-jews will get COVID-19.
March 18
Reb Sholom Ber Sorotzkin sings with his students that they will resist the health department
March 19
Weddings continue
And more wedding
March 21
Bodies start piling up in Lakewood
770 is still packed despite people dying left and right.
March 22
Another massive wedding
Mikvahs still operating
March 29
Guy found naked trying to go to the mikvah in Kalim mikvah.
March 30
Police are shouted and harassed at for trying to enforce COVID-19 restrictions
April 1
Dov Hikind chastises the community and begs them to stop with the weddings and funerals
April 2
Police need to beak up funeral
April 4
Mayors aks for a containment zone around KJ
April 5
Massive funeral for Amshinover rebbe
April 13
Illegal outdoor minyanim without facemasks are recording in Williamsburg.
April 14
Protests and clashes with the police continue
Shuls around Boro Park and Brooklyn are spotted surreptitiously continuing service.
April 15
Satmar mikvah of Williamsburg is still operational
Lakewood parties continue
April 22
Rav Chaim Kanievsky sends a letter to reopen yeshivas. Rabbi Gershon Edelstein has to step in and put his foot down.
Lakewood weddings continue
April 27
Frum communities in Israel keep disregarding the lockdown
Weddings continue in Chicago despite the massive outbreak
April 30
1000 Chassdim defy restrictions for funeral
May 12
Lag baomer celebrations cause Yidden to ignore social distancing (300 people gather in London)
A Rebbe holds a large indoor lag baomer event.
May 18
Police shut down yeshiva with 100 students in it
May 27
Velt chaps that Boro Park stores have reopened despite lockdown
June 29
Camps rebrand themselves as either child care centers or religious centers to allow themselves to reopen
July 2
Large wedding is broken up
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/chassidic-wedding-in-elstree-broken-up-by-police-1.501223
July 13
Yidden protest of COVID-19 lockdown
The Antisemetic canard was pulled on me at Debating Judaism Respectfully - and then my post was deleted. The main reason I quit. Yet my post was extremely mild and did not even specifically attack Orthodox Jews or Judaism at all ! Religions (including Orthodox Judaism) are like a virus and need social gatherings to spread and survive. Thus any restriction to the spread of the religion prompts a viral defense. ACJA wrote a blog post https://altercockerjewishatheist.blogspot.com/2020/03/corona-virus-and-god-virus.html