The Jewish world in the age of coronavirus – A special Israel Hayom project
Part XIX: The changes Jewish communities are making as a result of the pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has upended our lives, and this includes Jewish life. Communal assembly and gathering has always been one of the staples of Jewish communities, and a source of strength in times of crisis, but the new contagion has negated this key feature of its advantage.
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As a result, the set of practices that has defined Judaism for many around the world got a makeover, adapting to the age of coronavirus.
Jewish education gets transformed
"Our goal is to increase the sense of Jewish peoplehood and bolster the bonds between Jewish communities and organizations around the world,"
Ami Infeld, the CEO of Melitz - Center for Jewish Zionist Education told Israel Hayom. "We choose to define our circles of affiliation with the click of a button, and this has given us the ability to influence and express ourselves with the palm of our hands." The very thought of replacing Jewish summer camp and various trips to Israel has challenged communities and led them to rethink their approach to Jewish education, with a growing realization that online learning may be the only way forward for now.
An educator from France told Israel Hayom that the radical change that Jewish communities have undergone is clearly evident in the speed of the transformation. "How many times have you seen teachers wake up with an idea and then have it implemented at noon?" she said.
Apart from the high mortality that many Jewish communities have faced in the wake of this pandemic, especially among Haredis, Jewish communal life has all but ground to a halt, with prayer services and similar activities no longer being part of the daily routine, replaced by an online version that has tested the degree to which people can shift from the physical to the abstract.
This has also put to the test the very nature of the Jewish Diaspora's relationship with Israel. Many communities have had to undergo a "personality test" and just like every household has become its own autonomous unit, every community realized that it could not rely on outside help. Ilan Geal-Dor, the CEO of The Gesher Leadership Institute, which seeks to promote connections and unity between different sectors of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, told Israel Hayom that this crisis has led to a "growing realization that there are several spheres in the Jewish worldview.
According to Geal-Dor, there is no longer a single entity called "US Jewry'' but rather a composite of communities. "Chicago is not the same as Cleaveland and every community builds its human capital through its own character; the pandemic has made this trend even more pronounced and introduced new dimensions," he said, adding that "Every community has managed to build its own human capital and its own source of strength, and this increased many times over during the times of coronavirus to a degree that we have not seen before."
Haredi world faces a new reality
No community has been more affected than the Haredi community. Apart from the high infection rate, the very foundations of ultra-Orthodox society have suffered a crushing blow. TOrah study, prayer services, funerals, and many more aspects have had to be reinvented, all the while the relationship with the non-Haredi world entered an entire new phase. To a certain extent, the Haredim's predicament has created an opening for a more constructive dialogue with their counterparts in other parts of society, but on the other hand, their tendency to remain enclosed in their own community has threatened to generate more antagonism.
"Internet use has accelerated during the [coronavirus] crisis and continues to do so," Dr. Gilad Malach told Israel Hayom. Malach is the director of the Israel Democracy Institute's Ultra-Orthodox in Israel Program.
"Many Haredim came to realize to what degree they were disconnected from the news and society in general, and began using the Internet even without official permission [from the rabbis]."
They want a closer interaction with the world, especially because of the coronavirus. The rabbis' fight against the Internet is failing, at least at the moment."
These times of crisis have also shown the beautiful world of Jewish community-based philanthropy. Even the criticism that has been directed at big charity groups is now a thing of the past, as they have shown how they could become effective hubs of support. But philanthropy groups have had to rethink their approach, as they too have suffered and had to lay off workers on a massive scale just like many other Jewish organizations.
Philanthropy, when seen through a bird's eye view, could underscore the relationship between Jews around the world and Israel, and now that the pandemic has hit, the question of where to focus has become even more acute.
On the one hand, there are the Jewish communities who have suffered enormously, even critically, and on the other hand, there is Israel, which has relied on Jewish philanthropy from its early statehood years and even before that.
At this point it is unclear what Jews would need in the day after the pandemic but the conventional wisdom is that philanthropy will not look the same. because of the new models and dynamics that will emerge. Some have even said that if philanthropy drops within the US, this will be felt in Israel as well, although not immediately.
Shira Ruderman, who is the CEO of the Ruderman Family Foundation, says that philanthropy might lead to new long-term partnerships between Israel and the Jewish world, and this could become a milestone for both sides. "If we change our relationship to a partnership of shared destiny, we would be able to effect a revolution: The impact would be great and it would cement relations for the long run," she said.
Anti-Semitic activists seize on pandemic
Blaming Jews for the spread of disease is one of the hallmarks of anti-Semitism from its early days, and it is not a surprise that the pandemic has given Jew-hatred a boost. There is fear that conspiracy theories blaming Jews for spreading the disease will flourish, and the Diaspora Affairs Ministry has consequently predicted that a sharp rise could be expected in anti-Semitic incidents in the coming year.
In practice, even during the first wave there were "Hygiene Protests" that were fertile ground for anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists.
Felix Klein, who is the federal commissioner for Jewish life in Germany and the fight against anti-Semitism, told Israel Hayom that the recent protests against the COVID-19 regulations have become fertile ground for anti-Jewish sentiment.
"The current protests against corona-related restrictions serve as a rallying point for anti-Semitic, Holocaust deniers, and believers in conspiracy myths. At 'hygiene protests,' participants downplay the Holocaust by, for example, comparing the current requirement to wear a face mask with the obligation to wear a Star of David during the Nazi regime," he told Israel Hayom.
"Portraying themselves as rebels – as do for example the supporters of the new political party Widerstand2020 (Resistance2020) and the Reichsbürger movement – is typical of adherents to anti-Semitic beliefs: Presenting oneself as breaking taboos, as 'finally' bringing the truth to light, as showing at last who is pulling the strings behind the scenes – and, as has been done for thousands of years, pointing their fingers once again at Jews," he added, noting that "those who consider themselves to be a victim and say they are threatened, could become themselves a threat."
Klein's American counterpart has sounded a similar tone.
"We have seen a dramatic rise in anti-Semitic hatred, mostly on the Internet, that accuses Jews of having invented this coronavirus, of intentionally spreading it, of profiting from it, and of using it as a tool of global domination," the US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Elan Carr told Israel Hayom.
"The only thing new here is the virus itself. Blaming Jews for the maladies of the world is a hallmark of anti-Semitism dating back to its earliest days. During the Black Plague of Medieval Europe, Jews were often blamed for intentionally infecting drinking water – a calumny that resulted in numerous massacres of the innocent," he stressed.
In the wake of the new reality, many pro-Israel and Jewish groups have ramped up their efforts to counter anti-Semites and those who call for the boycott of the Jewish state, even as they themselves have struggled and faced possible demise as a result of the pandemic.
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