Placing the Blame for Covid-19 in and on Ultra-Orthodox Communities

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Sander Gilman, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-12-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mj/kjaa021
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Modern Judaism - A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience
• Keywords: Haredi; pandemic; symbolic communities; blame; COVID-19
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, General; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

The new coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, has resurrected a number of historical and sociological problems associated with blaming collectives for the origin or transmission of infectious disease. The default example of the false accusation has been the case of the fourteenth century charge of well poisoning against the Jews of Western Europe causing the pandemic of the Black Death. Yet querying group actions in times of pandemics is not solely one of rebutting false attributions. What happens when a collective is at fault and how does the collective respond to the simultaneous burden of both false, stereotypical accusations and appropriate charges of culpability? The case study here is of Haredi communities and the 2020 outbreak of COVID-19.