A well-known ba’al chessed in Beitar Illit, Chona Deutsch, who was enlisted to help transport people ill with Covid-19 outside the city to a hotel for recovery has met with staunch resistance by the residents themselves who are unwilling to leave their homes.
“Many of the people who have contracted the virus refuse to leave their homes and head to the hotel. They give many reasons, many of them are very odd. By not leaving the city they are posing a threat to everyone else here,” the ba’al chessed said.
Security and rescue services together with city councilors determined during a meeting that took place at city hall, that the Kinar Hotel On the shores of the Kinneret would be used as a Corona Hotel for hundreds of residents from the city who have contracted the disease. The hotel would be specifically for Beitar Illit residents and removing them from the city would hopefully slow the cycle of infection that has been plaguing the city over the past few weeks.
“It would be wonderful if everyone would head to the hotel like they are supposed to,” Deutsch told Kikar Shabbos. “Sadly, most of the people won’t leave. This is what is preventing the country from lifting the lockdown on the city. If all 200 of the families who have been diagnosed with the disease decided to leave and head to the hotel, then by Shabbat, there would no longer be a lockdown here. I ask anyone who can sway these people with regard to this, to do so and convince them to leave as quickly as possible. It is for everyone’s interest.”
Deutsch relayed that people refused to leave and fought against going for inconsequential reasons: “People asked me, ‘Is there a mikvah at the hotel?'” The only thing preventing the removal of the lockdown is the fact that these people are still here. It is deeply frustrating that we are all locked up because these people refuse to leave.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
The Kinneret is better than a Mikvah.
A good piece of lashon hora that is totally nogeia to us Americans.
Has anyone actually asked the people involved if they are refusing to go and what their reasons are? I find it hard to believe what he says.
Why can’t they just stay locked up in their houses instead?
another hillul haShem by hareidim; dying did not give a sufficient lesson.
Here is the truth: its going to jail. They are not allowed to leave. There are no medical services. The meals are poor. Getting out can be a nightmare – the govt. is in no hurry, and it can take weeks to get tested.
This is what people who have been there have said. I wouldn’t agree to go either.
Fraidygee, apparently b/c it’s basically impossible when one family member is sick for the rest of a very large family living in a small apartment to not get exposed. In Israel, there’s no option to quarantine the sick person in a guest suite or finished basement. A bedroom (3 bedrooms being an average apartment) would have to be given up for the sick person so multiple kids and all their belongs they’d need for a good few weeks would have to be relocated to another part of the already cramped apartment and, in any case, the sick person couldn’t be fully quarantined as there’s typically only 2 bathrooms so they’ll need to come out as needed and it would be difficult to make the rest of the family use 1 bathroom. This mean that the entire family would basically be in quarantine for some weeks in cramped quarters until the sick person and tests negative and the rest the family tests negative. As this is very difficult, there’s risk that neighbors can be exposed. Hence, best that the sick person (possibly together with (some) family members remove themselves to prevent exposure to family and neighbors.
These people may be in the category of רודפים and they think they are frum?
Most people are not irrational. Something sounds strange here.
Are people who test positive for Covid-19 going to the mikvah whether in Beitar or in the Kinnar?!
PS There is a mikvah in the Kinnar – and a shul…
I heard the opposite is true, many want to leave and they are having trouble doing so. The main problem is a family most have over 50% corona to leave this creates a problem as many families only have a few members with corona
Sorry to tell you Dr Yidd, but you sound like a goy… And you are a “Hillul Hashem”
There are two sides to every story out there. There is NO excuse to talk badly on others, frum or frei, at least until you have heard their side, first-hand.