When awareness of the coronavirus was just beginning to spread in Chareidi communities in Israel, the actual virus was already spreading in Telzstone.
It was the first Chareidi community hit with the virus and at one point it had the highest rate of infection relative to its population in Israel.
Following the diagnosis of the coronavirus in a guest who had stayed in Telzstone for Shabbos Zachor, hundreds of Telzstone residents were forced to self-quarantine before Purim.
Later, hundreds of other residents were sent to quarantine after six members of one family, parents and four children, were diagnosed with the virus. And then the first woman to give birth while positive for the coronavirus, a Telzstone resident, was diagnosed, sending even more people in quarantine.
There were so many residents in quarantine that the Telzstone local council opened a command center to assist residents and provide groceries to the quarantined familes, who couldn’t rely on neighbors since they were also in quarantine.
The local council, headed by Yitzchak Ravitz, did an excellent job, taking control of the situation, assisting the residents, and later placing the community in a self-imposed lockdown to avoid new cases.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
The trick to “defeat” a deadly plague is to announce the “plague” is an existential threat, similar to the great plagues of the past (which killed significant percentages, e.g. half) the population, old people and children alike, and that almost everyone exposed died a horrible death. Then when you get a “plague” that only makes 10% of those infected ill, and kills only a few percent of those who get seriously ill, and for the most part kills older people and those were sick or unhealthy to begin with (but not children), and you will look brilliant no matter what you do. According to the press many if not most hareidim ignored the government’s orders, and should now be dead (e.g. the Hareidim parties should be worries they won’t be in the next Knesset since their supporters died, there should be no overcrowding in Hareidi schools since most students passed away, housing in frum areas should be dirt cheap due to massive fatalities). You could have called for lockdowns, or saying tehillim, or standing on your head – you would look like genius since you told every to expect a disaster, gave them advice, and the expect disaster did not come to pass.
Ah yes, those cursed Hareidi Jews, what a beautiful comment @akuperma.
Kol HaKavod to the Telzstone community.