The Covid-19 pandemic has hit Jewish communities around the world. There are losses everywhere. There is no place to hide that is guaranteed safe. Here are reports from various Jewish communities around the world.
Brooklyn
The figures show that the number of deaths in the Jewish communities of Boro Park and Williamsburg in these last few months, was ten times higher or more than those of a year ago. Most of these deaths were apparently from Corona, surmises New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Rabbi Meir Berger, administrator of the Chevra Kadisha Chesed Shel Emes of Brooklyn, said that the number of Jewish deaths was four times higher than at the onset of the world epidemic. The Chevra Kadisha organized 500 funerals during the month between Purim and Pesach. "This isn't in Iran or Syria, or photos from places all around the world where you see rows upon rows or corpses awaiting burial," he said to the New York Times. "This is New York."
England
To date, 352 Jews have died in England, a number which represents 1.7% of the entire amount of English fatalities, a country where Jews number only 0.3% of the population. The Jewish death rate is almost six times the amount of the English rate at large.
Among the victims of Corona was HaRav Asher Yaakov Westheim, head of the Badatz Iggud HaRabbonim and Rav of the Manchester Zeirei Agudath Israel, who passed away at the age of 71. He was a pioneer in kashrus and known around the world.
Another victim was HaRav Dovid Rubinfeld, author of the commentary on "Pri Megodim", one of the most outstanding talmidei chachomim in Europe, who produced legions of disciples who grew and delved in Torah and discussed the chidushei Torah which he innovated. He died from Corona at the age of 92. Another victim was the philanthropist, Rabbi Zev (Willy) Stern, at the age of 86. The Jewish community was also struck with the death of R' Avrohom Pinter, head of the Yesodei HaTorah institutions and one of the foremost askonim of chareidi Jewry in England. He was also the first representative of chareidi Jewry of Stamford Hill of Northern London in the London city council.
Italy
The Jewish community in Italy established means and ways to continue to preserve a normal Jewish lifestyle. The community in Milan organized supplies of food and medicines to the homebound elderly.
France
France boasts the largest Jewish community in Europe with about half a million Jews. It is not clear how many of them are included in the overall figure of 23,000 deaths from the virus, but the Jewish section in the French cemetery of Thiais, near Paris, which was originally planned to accommodate all the departed for many years to come, was filled up in recent weeks almost to capacity.
Representatives of the Jewish Physicians Organization, AMIF, said that the infection rate among Jews was apparently proportionately high due to the Purim festivities which served as a fertile ground for contagion. Most of French Jews in Paris and Strasbourg had a much higher figure of Corona patients than that of the rest of the country.
President of the Consistoire, Yoel Margi, a dermatologist, was interviewed in the Intensive Care Ward where he was hospitalized, and in a tear-choked voice, pleaded with the community to obey the directives of keeping social distance. Since then, he has been released from the hospital.
The Rav of Strasbourg and member of the Active Committee of the European Conference of Rabbonim, HaRav Avrohom Weil, also contracted the virus but has, fortunately, also recovered. In an interview with Yated Ne'eman at the beginning of the outbreak of the epidemic, he described the feelings and fears about future widespread contamination within the community, in light of the deaths of several of its most respected members. Among the deaths in France were roshei yeshiva and Torah disseminators who produced generations of talmidim and who, regretfully, met their end.
Holland
As opposed to the rest of Europe, Holland did not impose a full quarantine with the beginning of the outbreak of the epidemic. The Beis Shalom Old Age Home in Amsterdam, which has its own beis knesses and community center, and a nearby center of sheltered housing, made no special protective moves and maintained an open house policy until the 24th of Adar when the percentage of contagion in the country began climbing. As a result, this Jewish institution was badly hit with over 26 fatalities out of a population of 120 residents.
Beis Shalom is now under quarantine, with most of its residents confined to their rooms. In order to ease their difficult plight, a Dutch organization employing building cranes, owned by an Israeli-Dutch businessman, Doron Levanon, has organized such cranes to lift family visitors to the windows of their relatives in the Home without endangering the residents. Some 40,000 Jews live in Holland, from a population of 17 million, of which 4,500 lives overall have been claimed by the virus.
Morocco
Some 1,500 - 2,000 Jews still live in Morocco out of a general population of 36 million. The Jewish community shockingly lost 15 lives or .1%. It is said that a wedding in the city of Agadir was the catalyst for the catastrophe. Among the departed was HaRav Shalom Eidelman from Casablanca, an esteemed talmid chacham who died at the age of 84 and was one of the leaders of Moroccan Jewry for dozens of very active years. The complete figure of fatalities in Morocco stands at only 162 people.
Argentina
Argentina mourns ten Jews out of a total figure of 200 citizens who died from the virus. Some two hundred thousand Jews altogether live in Argentina, representing the largest Jewish community in Latin America, most of them in Buenos Aires, which is also the center of the epidemic in the country. This country of 40 million people has been in quarantine since the 24th of Adar, which has contributed to the relatively small number of deaths.
Iran
The Jewish community in Iran, headed by Rabbi Yehuda Graami, has a self-imposed quarantine, which has spared it from the full brunt of the epidemic raging throughout the country. This is thanks to the foresight of the chief rabbi who ordered the life-saving closing down of all the shuls from Taanis Esther on, and went as far as to forbid fasting on that day. The results were quickly apparent, for while thousands of Iranians came down with the virus and hundreds were officially reported to have died, most of the Jewish residents remained protected. Nonetheless, 10 Jews did find their death, mostly those in senior citizen homes or hospitalized [for other reasons] where they contracted the disease. Several Jews succumbed but recovered. It has not yet been decided when the shuls will be reopened.
