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People celebrate the holiday of Purim in the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem on March 11, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Senior rabbis and religious authorities in the ultra-Orthodox community have ruled that due to the coronavirus outbreak, revelers during the coming Purim festival should refrain from keeping up the tradition of drinking until tipsiness.
The opinion, which was to be published in ultra-Orthodox media during the day, warned that drunken behavior could lead to violations of government rules aimed at preventing the virus from spreading, the Ynet news site reported Wednesday.
Last Purim, at the start of the pandemic, there was a jump in virus infections after many ignored rules against holding large events.
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Dry ice is poured into a box containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine as it is prepared to be shipped at the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant in Portage, Michigan, Dec. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, Pool)
1. Highway to tightened restraint: The coronavirus crisis is front and center in the media world Tuesday morning, as the Health Ministry announces that over 2,000 new cases were recorded Monday.
Several news outlets note that the number of new cases is the highest it has been in some two months, when Israel was still under lockdown but as infection figures slackened from their late September high of nearly 9,000 a day.
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Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (front R) and Rabbi Gershon Edelstein (Front C) attend a rally of the UTJ party to support the candidacy of Moshe Lion ahead of the Jerusalem municipal elections, on October 25, 2018. (Aharon Krohn/Flash90)
Top ultra-Orthodox Rabbis Chaim Kanievsky, Gershon Edelstein and Shalom Cohen have recommended that their communities vaccinate against the coronavirus.
The three spiritual leaders asked for a medical opinion on the matter from Rabbi Elimelech Firer, who heads a prominent charitable medical organization. That opinion was released on Tuesday in the names of Kanievsky, Edelstein and Shalom, who conclude that “anyone who has the option of getting the vaccine should do it,” saying the shot has been proven safe under standard, accepted scientific methods.
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Screen capture from video of a meeting between health officials and lead ultra-Orthodox rabbis in the city of Bnei Brak aimed at encouraging coronavirus vaccination in the local community. (YouTube)
Top health officials held a meeting with leading rabbis in the largely ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak in an effort to convince them to publicly back the national coronavirus vaccination program, but failed to get the support they wanted, which would have countered community reluctance to get the shots.
Israel is gearing up to begin a mass vaccination program next week, but health officials are concerned about public hesitance to be immunized.