Rabbi Kanievsky calls for ultra-Orthodox schools to close

• Author: JEREMY SHARON
• Published date: 07 January 2021
• Date: 07 January 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The step is highly significant since Kanievsky refused to call for schools to close during the last lockdown, leading to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox families to send their children to school in defiance of government instructions and the law.

Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, Kanievsky's counterpart in the leadership of the non-hassidic ultra-Orthodox community, has also told school principals who have approached him to shut down their schools until the government gives permission to reopen.

Netanyahu called several of the leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis in the country or their representatives on Wednesday and Thursday to obtain their cooperation for the upcoming COVID-19 lockdown in light of their previous refusal to do so.

Netanyahu spoke to the grand rabbi of the Vizhnitz community, Rabbi Yisroel Hager, on Tuesday night, and also called United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler of the Belz community with a message for the grand rabbi of the Belz hassidic movement, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach.

Belz has been the most prominent of the mainstream hassidic communities to routinely defy COVID-19 regulations, while Vizhnitz has also held several mass gatherings and prayer services during the pandemic.

Netanyahu also spoke with Kanievsky's grandson on Thursday afternoon to request the influential rabbi's cooperation.

On Thursday morning, Kanievsky and Edelstein published a joint letter in the Yated Neeman newspaper that referenced the coming lockdown obliquely, but did not directly state that schools should close down.

"Because of the situation, parents are called to keep a close eye on pupils during the time that they are forced to stay at home and to try and generate a pleasant atmosphere in the home," read the notice. "It is a merit and an obligation that educators stay in constant touch with their pupils and preserve a study and lesson schedule for them."

Commentators speculated that the rabbis were being deliberately vague due to their reticence to call for a blanket shut down of the ultra-Orthodox education system.

Kanievsky and his assistants had come to an agreement with Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion on Tuesday that ultra-Orthodox schools in the capital would close for two weeks.

But overnight on Tuesday, Kanievsky flip-flopped and told the principal of a large school in Jerusalem that he should keep his institution open.

Following a phone call between Netanyahu and Kanievsky's grandson, Yanki Kanievsky, a spokesman for the rabbi...