ABSTRACT

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Israel in March 2020 and the government imposed a number of lockdowns, Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rabbis instructed their followers to continue attending synagogues and engage in Torah study. As a result, the relative number of COVID-19 infections and fatalities in the Haredi community was higher than that of the Israeli population as a whole. This article examines the role of the mass media during the crisis in Israel’s largest Haredi city of Bnei Beraq, via interviews with 405 of the city’s residents. It shows that despite rabbinic bans on exposure to the secular media and to the Internet, many Haredim were exposed to them and hence less dependent on the Haredi media.

摘要

当 Covid-19 大流行于 2020 年 3 月袭击以色列并且政府实施了多次封锁时，Haredi（超正统派）拉比指示他们的追随者继续参加犹太教堂并从事托拉研究。因此，Haredi 社区的 COVID-19 感染和死亡人数的相对数量高于整个以色列人口。本文通过采访该市 405 名居民，研究了大众媒体在以色列最大的哈雷迪市 Bnei Beraq 发生危机期间的作用。它表明，尽管拉比禁止接触世俗媒体和互联网，但许多 Haredim 都接触过它们，因此对 Haredi 媒体的依赖程度较低。