My name is Yochai Danino, 30 years old, married, father of five children without the evil eye, and a resident of Bnei Brak.
In the routine of life - the one that was here until Purim - I study in the kollel, and work for a living as editor-in-chief of the newspaper 'Yom Liom'.
Since Purim, everything has changed. The coronavirus pandemic has spread, and even before the official directive from the Ministry of Education was received, I agreed with my wife that the children would stay home and not go to their schools.
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It's not easy to leave children at home, you probably understand that. But we've been doing it for a month - and you'd be surprised - we're even getting by with it.
The streets are quite empty, in a way that surprised me too. I didn't think they would internalize the instructions like this and with such obedience. What is true is that we can't handle what's been happening here for the past two weeks, since the talk of a lockdown began.
It started as a sort of half-joke, but slowly you started accusing us of spreading the virus, just as they blamed the Jews in Nazi Germany - and MK Yisrael Eichler will forgive me for using his copyright.
The media and institutional hubbub grew day by day, and everything we - the media - tried to do, to ensure that they adhere to the Ministry of Health's guidelines, you destroyed, with daily leaks about the impending lockdown. Didn't you succeed? Well, then they're imposing a lockdown only on Bnei Brak. Didn't it happen? Then it will happen tomorrow.
You may not have understood, but in doing so you have done everything that could be bad: you have caused mass panic for three weeks now. Supermarkets are collapsing, delivery services no longer exist at all. And you? 'Impose a lockdown.'.
All that's missing is dropping leaflets from fighter jets and carrying out the 'tap on the roof' procedure. After all, we're only Haredi, and you can knock down buildings on their occupants with ease - and you'll also get backing from publicists who have risen to senior positions in the Haredi media.
My argument is also directed at those ultra-Orthodox politicians who were alarmed by the media discourse and called for a blockade of Bnei Brak.
Don't get me wrong. I'm in favor of a lockdown, but not just for Bnei Brak but for the entire country; not just from this morning but from two weeks ago. But does only Bnei Brak suddenly have to be quarantined?
Let's say that your decision is right to impose a lockdown only on Bnei Brak (by the way, Kiryat Yearim managed just fine even without a lockdown and controlled the virus), but first think about what you are doing with the residents.
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Government ministers, you made headlines about the lockdown, but why haven't I heard any of you demanding a solution for the population that has been confined to their homes for a long time? Why haven't I heard any of you demanding solutions for the civilian population in Bnei Brak who just wants to eat?
I'm judging you to your heart's content. You don't really know what's going on in Bnei Brak, but I want to explain to you: While every normal neighborhood in a mixed city has a supermarket spanning hundreds of square meters, in Bnei Brak there are only three of these, and more minimarkets scattered on street corners.
Now try to imagine a city of 200,000 (in words: two hundred thousand!) residents, who are supposed to do shopping for Passover and even for everyday life. Do you understand the huge congestion? Great. Now think about what happens when you have to follow all the rules.
Dozens of people wait in long lines, for hours, in the scorching sun - just to purchase essential supplies.
All along you claim that in Bnei Brak, people get infected much more. Of course. We have no counters, we have nowhere to shop, and by the time we manage to get in - our souls are gone. Now imagine in your head what happens when the white gold arrives (i.e. eggs). Dozens of viruses are flying in the air.
Honorable government ministers and emergency officials: Have you decided to impose a lockdown on the city so that others will not enter or we will not leave and so that the virus will not spread? No problem, but first check that you are prepared to provide us with the minimum help. Making statements in the media and issuing orders from above is the easiest.
The real difficulty begins with following the instructions.
So before issuing instructions, we must check whether it is possible and how to carry it out. Unless, you don't really care about our safety and you don't have a problem with everyone continuing to move around the city, the main thing is that we don't leave it. Well, dear politicians, some of you might not be sorry if there were fewer Haredim in Bnei Brak, the day after the pandemic.
