Pandemic Israeli Style – By Dovid Primack (Counterpunch) / April 23 2020
Real news never happens on TV. For the cameras to roll and the anchors to anch, something sensational has to happen, and to produce the sensation, something must be sacrificed, either a clear view of reality or a human life, preferably both. And that’s what Covid-19 is all about in newsrooms around the world. It bleeds, so it leads.
But real news happens off camera. In Neveh Daniel, my little Mayberry of the Middle East, before the lockdown, 11 people were infected, total, out of a population of 2,345. First thing I noticed was that the men’s mikveh (ritual immersion pool where I ordinarily prepare myself to write the ornate Hebrew sacred scrolls on parchment with a hand-made quill pen) was shut down and all the water drained out. Next, a few weeks later, access to the makolet (grocery store) was limited to eight customers at a time, who had to wear masks and gloves and make an appointment. This right before Passover, which is a major shopping holiday. Then my friend and house cleaner, we’ll call him Ahmed, was told neither he nor any of the other Arab workers who regularly come here for employment, could enter the town. Right before Passover, when the entire house must be cleaned and my wife and teenage youngest son had to do it all, since I’m recovering from major surgery. As for “Ahmed,” Passover is a major money-making opportunity for him, and he’s now left in the lurch with a family to feed.
Real news is also comprised of many distinctions, the existence of which the TV world is unaware. “Orthodox” and “ultra-Orthodox” are about as helpful as the term “Arab,” “Muslim,” “Christian” or American. There are many denominations of “ultra-Orthodox” and “Orthodox” Jews, from Ashkenazi Mizrahi and Sephardic to the black-garbed anti-Zionist Neturei Karta, from proselytizing Chabadniks and Breslovers to hospitable but insular Satmars, from Haredim who throw dog turds at immodestly dressed women to Haredim who deplore and oppose such militant nastiness. But one common denominator characterizes every kind of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jew: They crave and insist on each others’ company, especially during troubled times. They talk it over at shul or in the street, invite unfortunates who’ve lost their employment over to enjoy the holidays with them, or gossip at the men’s or women’s mikveh. The various Chassidic sects’ adherents each have a supreme spiritual guide called a “Rebbe,” and whether after a business upset, a family quarrel, before undertaking a new enterprise, or during a pandemic, they go to their Rebbe for advice, a blessing, or just a comforting word. To Chassidim, telling them not to go to their Rebbe, instead to “shelter-in-place” and “self-quarantine” is not just advice to be disregarded as coming from the “tzioinishe apikursim,” (Zionist “heretics”), but also completely counterproductive. How to face a pandemic without hearing from the Rebbe.
Continue to article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/04/23/pandemic-israeli-style/
