Israel: Ultra-Orthodox communities hit by coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak is taking a toll on Israel's Ultra-Orthodox communities, Health Ministry data published Friday reveals, with Jerusalem and Bnei Brak in the top 3 worst-affected cities.

Jerusalem, Israel's most populous (about 850,000 residents) city with a high number of Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, accounts for 352 infections, the highest number in the country.

Bnei Brak, a religious city with a population of about 190,000, has the same number of infections as Tel Aviv, the coastal city of 451,520 residents, as of December 2018, with 267 cases reported in either. 

The figures come amid reports that Ultra-Orthodox communities violated the government's regulations on several occasions, gathering for mass prayers and weddings.

A study also revealed that synagogues crowned the list of places where Israeli coronavirus patients most commonly contracted the virus, accounting for a quarter of infections.

On the other hand, however, reports have also been emerging that the Israeli authorities have approached the matter of communicating the instructions to the Ultra-Orthodox communities with a certain degree of neglect, with religious Jews forced to rely on the word of the mouth, not official communication channels.

According to Haaretz, many of the religious Jews are using special "kosher" cellphones, which are incompatible with most of the means the Health Ministry has been using to keep the public up to date on the disease.