“The Israeli media are inciting against the Orthodox Jews just like the antisemitic weekly newspaper Der Stürmer did in the past,“ charged Rabbi Shlomo Benizri, a former member of Knesset and government minister. In an interview on the Orthodox website Kikar Hashabbat, he accused the Israeli media of fomenting hate similar to that of the former Nazi government in Germany: “The media are dancing on our blood as if we artificially produced the coronavirus.”

There is even talk of antisemitic sentiment among the Jewish population itself, whereby secular Israelis are going out of their way to avoid Orthodox Jews wherever they see them. This may also explain why Orthodox Jews have been comparing Israeli police officers to Nazis and Hitler whenever they attempt to break up illegal gatherings in synagogues and yeshivas, which are in violation of lockdown restrictions, or try to fine those who are responsible.

Yeshiva students self-inoculate

It is true that the second wave of the coronavirus has been accompanied by a growing disdain for Israel’s Orthodox community. Those secular...