I am a proud member of the Israeli Charedi community and am extremely upset at the continuous assertions that the “Charedi Population” is not listening to the Health Ministry’s guidelines. I along with my family, neighbors and entire community have been dutifully staying in my house, as per the Ministry of Health’s rules for the past 3 weeks and as the Charedi Rav of my neighborhood (and actually any Charedi Rav I know) instructed 3 weeks ago. I do not know any of my Charedi friends who are not doing the exact same thing- with great mesiras nefesh (likely more than our secular brothers and sisters) given the larger families and often smaller places of residence, yet we are doing it- many, many 10’s of thousands of us, including those families with special needs children. I have painfully refrained from davening with a minyan for weeks and so has my son. These types of stereotyping creates animosity towards a group that does not deserve it.
If one feels the need to make a particular community look bad, please be accurate about who it is. Make it clear that a particular neighborhood or neighborhoods are not keeping to the rules. I have friends in Bnei Brak who have been keeping the rules for weeks, but YWN’s articles make it sound as if there is no such thing. It is inaccurate and disparaging to refer to the “The Charedi population…” when speaking about a small demographic within that world. According to YWN’s journalistic guidelines I recommend that instead of saying that “Charedim are not keeping the regulations”, say “White people are not keeping the regulations” They are white also, and once precision doesn’t matter, might as well, go all the way.