Following a directive that came from Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky telling Roshei Yeshivos that yeshiva students should stop being tested for coronavirus because it could lead to “mass Bitul Torah”, Coronavirus Commissioner Ronni Gamzu, chastised the Gadol Hador, and said that his words could “endanger the Chareidi public”.
Rav Kanievsky was reportedly worried about the testing causing masses of students to be put in isolation until after Yom Kippur which would cause a massive amount of Bitul Torah.
Recent statistics have shown that there has been a large spike in the number of Chareidim who have contracted the virus, especially in Yeshivos. One Yeshiva in Carmiel had 200 students test positive for the virus on Tuesday.
According to Gamzu, about 28% of infection is in Arab society and 22% in the Chareidi communities across the country. Gamzu also said that 80% of the new cases of infections are in Chareidi cities.
In Beitar Illit alone, 14% of the people tested for Corona in Beitar Illit tested positive, compared to the average for the rest of the country which sits between 8 and 9 percent.
“Without a significant change in the extent of morbidity in the red cities, we will not be able to avoid a full closure,” Gamzu told reporters on Wednesday during a visit to Beitar.
“Unfortunately, we are witnessing a systematic breach of the guidelines. Every evening, events are held in the city that violate all procedures, and yesterday, contrary to our instructions, the educational institutions in the city were opened. I understand the complexity of the situation, but I now state unequivocally: without increasing enforcement and encouraging inspections, we will be required to make complex decisions that may amount to a total lockdown.”
Education Minister Yoav Gallant also seems to be going against the commissioner Gamzu. Gallant, who visited Bnei Brak on Wednesday said that schools must not be shut down in the city.
Binyamin Cohen, Director of the Yeshiva Committee Control Center, told Israeli media that out of around 25,000 yeshiva students in the country, around 500 have been diagnosed with the virus. Other news sites were reporting that as many as 800 students tested positive and thousands more were put into isolation.
Major outbreaks were reported in Elad, Chareidi neighborhoods of Yerushalayim, Rishon Lezion, Bnei Brak, and others.
A few hours after Gamzu chastised Rav Kanievsky, the Chareidi representatives resigned from participating in the Coronavirus Advisory Commitee. Shas representatives claimed that the committee was simply a decoration and had no power or effect. Ashkenazi representatives, Deputy Mayor of Yerushalayim Yossi Deutsch and Head of Ezer M’Tzion Hananya Cholak both resigned as well, and claimed that they were strongly disappointed with the way that the committee was being run and felt that they had no voice in deciding issues that mattered.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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15 Responses
This COVID insanity is nothing but a smokescreen /distraction of the Globalist’s agenda in which the Isreali Government is a big part of.
The virus is real but the truth is distorted and used for a bigger Globalist agenda e.g. Societal control, Cashless society and a Eugenics operation. We applaud the Gadol Hador in coming out and standing with the voices of reason in this matter, ENOUGH with this COVID Insanity. !
Maybe the Rav knows about this:
Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.Excerpts from New York Times article
8/29/20:
Some of the nation’s leading public health experts are raising a new concern in the endless debate over coronavirus testing in the United States: The standard tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.…In three sets of testing data that include cycle thresholds, compiled by officials in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada, up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus, a review by The Times found.…Tests with thresholds so high may detect not just live virus but also genetic fragments, leftovers from infection that pose no particular risk — akin to finding a hair in a room long after a person has left, Dr. Mina said.Any test with a cycle threshold above 35 is too sensitive, agreed Juliet Morrison, a virologist at the University of California, Riverside. “I’m shocked that people would think that 40 could represent a positive,” she said.…The Food and Drug Administration said in an emailed statement that it does not specify the cycle threshold ranges used to determine who is positive, and that “commercial manufacturers and laboratories set their own.”
PLEASE READ entire article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html
YWN this is old news!
It can work if all students are kept in isolation from the rest of the world including family occasions with no exceptions for any reason whatsoever unless that student has recovered and positive tested for anti-bodies.
Dear Sellout, brainwashing, government worshipping apikorsim of YWN, it doesn’t matter if people who don’t sick get exposed to the disease. It’s a good thing actually because they develop immunity. When will you grasp that idea? Or, are you really working for the government or the new world order?
Gamzu Chastises Rav Chaim Let Gamzu channel his expertise in “chastisement” at the Department of Education which insisted on opening up schools too quickly in אייר and is doing so again, this also having been the catalyst of this tragic 2nd Corona wave in Israel.
I don’t understand the logic. Why can’t the isolated learn together?
I have to believe that either the quote from Rav Chaim, Shlita, is not accurate, or he was given bad information before making this decision. Given the way that the advice back in March to keep Yeshivos and Chadarim open backfired so spectacularly in the Chareidi community, and given the numbers of positives – and deaths – in the Chareidi community, there’s just no way such a Psak, which is clearly contrary to all reputable medical advice, could have been given with full knowledge of the situation.
an Israeli Yid
147 is 100% right. But the Rav’s words carry so much weight that this instruction is going to enable seemingly uninfected, asymptomatic people who ARE carrying the virus to unwittingly spread it further. 3,000 new cases in less than 24 hours? Something constructive, consistent and long-lasting needs to be done, and if that means closing schools and Yeshivos, well, perhaps that is what will have to happen.
One thing is clear: what they tried so far hasn’t worked one bit. From #3 in the world with the lowest per capita rate to the worst in the world….it’s insane.
The Truth: Thanks for your periodic reminders that the world is run by a cabal of yiddeshe ‘globalists” wearing tin shtremilach, funded by Reb Soros and seeking to enslave humanity to their socialist agenda. Its so easy to lose sight of this with a conniving President who has become a Swamp Creature and seeks to hijack Q for his own cult of personality worship.
“The Truth Is”, I’m so heartened and glad that YOU “applaud” and “stand with the Gadol Hador”. I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep at night knowing that YOU and your ilk might not agree with the Gadol Haddor.
Same goes to you “Get Educated”. I’m SO glad that you presented us with an article that the Gadol Haddor
might have based his opinion on.
The Gemara speaks about a Dor where the sheep lead the Shepard…
Yeshiva World???
what about ushmartem es nafshoseichem? It doesnt say ushmarta es nafshosecha. we have to be concerned for the masses not just ourselves. just wear mask and be careful and yes tell others youve been around if you test postive or even more so have real symptoms of covid.
there was the claim that boubonic plague came from the jews. I can totally see how that spread given the lack of concern of spread of disease from the jewish oilam.
147 – The answer to your question is simply: YES. Expertise comes with experience, experience comes from learning from mistakes and, thankfully, Gamzu has learned from the mistakes he and others have made. He is working to curb the tragedy that is currently unfolding in Israel, i.e. – to save lives which, last I heard, is an absolutely tremendous mitzvah.
PleaseStayCalm – except that asymptomatic carriers spread the disease to others who DO get sick, suffer and R”L – die. Farshtaist?
A follow-up – per Mishpacha Magazine’s website, the question asked to Rav Chaim, Shlita, was specifically about whether boys who had been in capsules for 14 days and showed no symptoms should be re-tested before being allowed to join with the rest of the Yeshiva. In that situation, Rav Chaim said that there’s no reason to be re-tested – which is in line with the general guidance that one who was in isolation for 14 days and had no symptoms can leave isolation with no further testing. This makes much more sense – and leads one to believe that whomever spread the original purported Psak has an agenda. It also would seem that all those who were protesting on behalf of Rav Chaim’s Kavod would have done better to find out and publicize his ACTUAL psak…
an Israeli Yid
Everyone should take
50mg ZINC
1000mg Vitamin C
5000iu Vitamin D
500mg Quercetin
And the virus will not stick