Prof. Moti Ravid, the medical director of the Mayanei Hayeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak, described this morning (Thursday) the heavy burden placed on the hospital he manages due to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, estimated that another wave of illness would come - and launched a particularly blatant attack against the Haredi public.
Referring to the significance of the upcoming Simchat Torah holiday events, Ravid said in an interview with Reshet B: "I know, there will be another wave of illness, I hope it won't be very large, but it will be. The question is - these people, how many other people will they infect?".
Regarding the ultra-Orthodox sector's conduct in the face of the Corona crisis, Ravid said: "This is one of the wildest events in the history of the State of Israel.".
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He added: "I think there has never been a whole audience that unleashes a yoke in this way and kills people, in my opinion not out of faith. I don't understand what the connection is between faith, between Judaism, between religion and what they do.".
According to him, "There is no connection, there is some kind of defiance here of 'me and nothing else.' People who were educated to receive everything and give nothing for years, and this is one of the reactions.".
""I don't think there are any religious characteristics here," the hospital director claimed. "It's a poor education of the population. The wise rabbis shout and say, 'Stop,' but there is an audience that doesn't listen.".
Deputy Minister Uri Maklev said of Prof. Ravid's words: "A man saturated with hatred and hypocrisy, who for years has lived and made a living from the public he so loathes, finds himself in a place that the Haredi public established solely to give, - ready, for known motives, to poison the well from which he has been drinking for decades!
"This is a personality at odds with himself, why doesn't he get up and leave? If his words are sincere, how can he provide service and heal the sick from the public he loathes - one more day?".
MK Uriel Bosso of Shas responded: "The ongoing incitement that an entire sector has been dealing with for some time is doubly difficult and cries out to the heavens when it comes from a hospital director in a Haredi city, who apparently got into some kind of internal conflict with the management and decided to come around in order to achieve his personal goal.".
He added: "The man knows exactly the number of volunteers within the hospital he runs and the size of the contribution and giving of this sector for the benefit of the country and its citizens. I expect him to make a little effort and go out, despite his advanced age, to see the Sephardic synagogues as well as the other institutions across the country that are completely closed under many constraints and concessions, some of which are difficult, all due to a single clear directive and ruling by the Council of Torah Sages.".
MK Yaakov Asher: "Professor Ravid's words are very serious and have nothing to do with medicine. Such generalizations should not be made by a doctor or anyone else. If this is what he thinks about the Haredi public, why has he been working there for 20 years? The only thing that can be said in his favor is that the workload and exhaustion led him to make this unfortunate statement.".
