Torah against the Virus, Rabbis against the Government: Ultra-Orthodoxy Facing the Pandemic

Abstract

The paper discusses a number of the most remarkable responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and to the social isolation measures coming from several, mostly ultra-Orthodox, Jewish communities in Israel, the United States, and Russia. It examines major elements of the crisis discourse, i.e., the hermeneutics of the causes and meanings of the pandemic; the affirmation of group borders and hierarchies as a result of the search for culprits; the relations between the religious community and the state; as well as the possible transformations of social behavior and ritual practices resulting from the crisis.