When COVID-19 and the headlines was raging - the first against the whole world and the latter against the Charedim in Stamford Hill.
Here's one in favour of the Charedim:
Wed, 3 Feb 2021 at 23:26, by S. K. K.
They have been completely wrong to do it, however their understanding about Covid through lack of media of all forms is not like ours. That is not an excuse, that’s the reality that's unfortunately prevented them learning of the statistics and world effect.
The other point is although their infection rate is much higher than the general population due mainly to living in such overcrowding, their mortality rate in comparison is much lower, probably due to the fact that there average age is younger than the general population, therefore they are not seeing the death rate like us in their own community and they are not aware outside the community what’s really going on.
So for them, who mainly all had it last year and recovered well, they are feeling such low risk now and like the rest of the population the longer the restrictions go on the harder people are finding it to maintain restrictions.
Their lives in crammed housing with little outlet, for example no football team to follow, no social media, no TV etc, leaves them totally reliant on just the joys of Simcha’s to focus on. Again this is NOT an excuse but it’s reality.
If, you then add to the equation a historic somewhat lack of trust from the outside world, as their lives are governed by Torah. Which generally do coincide perfectly with keeping all the civil laws.
Hence despite this they have always had a great relationship with Hackney Police because they are all bar exception of a very small minority of them, they are extremely law abiding and charitable. Probably pro rata for their numbers the most law abiding group of people.
Now please take this all into consideration when you are singling just them out for not abiding by Restrictions. To finish, the good news is that Janet Clifford I and other had a zoom meeting with a representative of their community on Sunday, we were completely clear in our condemnation of any weddings taking place.
The person told us that he hadn’t (like no one in Stamford Hill does) seen the JC or Jewish news reports, so he had no idea of the outrage from fellow Jews. However he told us a very productive meeting had be held by the police after the wedding and a booklet produced in Yiddish and Hebrew and it’s all been very clearly explained and understood by them.
It’s a shame this has taken till now, but at least it’s happened. They see Secular as fellow Jews and they would never meddle in the rights and wrongs what we do. We don’t have a perfect track record, we are not all societal covid saints.
The difference is we don’t dress the same so we are not identified as one. Is anyone not up in arms at the celebrities who’ve been highlighted in the news for breaking it, no, because people in the main judge their rule breaking as one bad incident amongst all the other non bad things that they know about the celebrity.
A lot of People here do not know other things about the Charedi to focus on and believe me all the other things about them are really good and endearing. Again I will reiterate, I completely condemn the weddings that took place but I completely condemn equally the witch hunt against all the Charedi. They are not all holding weddings.
Please see the whole picture about them and what has happened. Please stop the hatred towards them, we have enough antisemites out there who hate all of us, we don’t need to hate each other. Please see the good in fellow Jews, They do. With very best wishes, S.K.K.
My reply, dated Friday, February 5, 2021
Hi,
Following the welcome news that the editors have started to back-paddle on the wave of hatred they engendered in last week's edition of the LJN, I would like to clarify one point:
A positive change in attitude towards COVID-19 guidelines by the North London Charedi Kehilla (aka the Stamford Hill Jewish community) is evident on local streets, in shops and in public buildings across the neighbourhood.
This is mainly due to high-level talks between the Metropolitan Police and functionaries of local synagogues, who verbally transmitted the Met's recommendations on the last Sabbath; these were also disseminated by way of printed notices.
Increased patrolling and policing of the area to enforce guidelines, coupled with the commitment by the local population to follow these guidelines have resulted in more people wearing masks, which will hopefully lead to less people requiring medical intervention.
In no way can the change in Stamford Hill be credited to the mud-slingers peddling vitriolic venom from their ivory towers. As the late Harry Stern (full name: "Meir Menasche Stern", a decades-long police liaison for the Jewish community vis-a-vis local and national government) once said: "there are nice ways to be nasty".
When dealing with sensitive issues there is no need to pour oil on the fire, which may (or may not?) have sold more newspapers for one week, but lost many customers to the LJN forever.
I am full of hope that at the same time that the we have learned a lesson in obedience, the publishers of the JC and the LJN - together with all purveyors of juicy gossip on social media will put a stop to this mindless regurgitation of ages-old baseless self-hatred. Amen! Menasche Scharf
Followed by the next instalment, on 08 February 2021:
Good morning,
I'm not aware - I was told that the community came to an agreement with the Metropolitan police that there will be no weddings in Stamford Hill for two weeks or until a solution can be found.
In light of the above, I'm wondering how a person of Rabbi Shochat's stature could make such an assertion - unless I'm totally misinformed. Should his statement be true then it's sad for our community to be led by seemingly spineless leaders whose promises to the authorities are breached by their own community members.
Whilst there were some weddings that I heard about, they were in people's front rooms, which usually can hold up to 20-30 people in the most expansive house in the area. You also have to take into account the cultural divide which precludes the mixing of genders, especially at weddings (e.g. dining & dancing) so there could have been a maximum of 15 people in each room.
Regardless of all the above, me thinks that all this should be a wakeup call for the Jewish community as a whole to stop this social distancing and start titillating each other's way of life so that when the government's guidance and recommendations on social distancing is finally lifted we could start working together instead of flying into each other's hair whenever there is a scoop...
To which came the reply, on 08 February 2021:
Morning, Absolutely brilliant and thank you so much for the informative reply. I know you are busy working so I wont bother you any more but I will let you know if Rabbi Schohet does reply, although I doubt he will. I will let you know, have a good day.
