The death toll from coronavirus continues to rise within the British Jewish community, up to 34 reported on Friday from 25 the day before, according to the Board of Deputie of British Jews.
In Israel, one of the most prominent Charedi rabbis, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, from the Lithuanian community, urged followers to pray alone and not attend a minyan.
London Police have been called to Stamford Hill to try to stop a small number of people within the Charedi community continuing to meet to pray, The Jewish Chronicle reported.
This happened as the death toll from coronavirus continues to rise within the British Jewish community, up to 34 reported on Friday from 25 the day before.
Despite an order from the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations to close synagogues new measures imposed by the government to stop the spread of coronavirus, some men appear to have met for outdoor minyanim during the week.
A blogger tweeted a short video apparently showing an outdoor minyan taking place over the weekend in Stamford Hill, where the largest Hasidic community in Europe lives.
The London Police confirmed they had “become aware of small number of religious meetings in Stamford Hill”.
A force spokesperson said officers “are engaged with the community and are encouraging them to follow the government’s very clear instruction, which is to stay at home… This precludes gatherings of more than two people and includes places of worship.”
A letter circulated by Jewish doctors last week warned against outdoor minyanim, saying that “a disproportionate number of the Jewish community” had been hospitalised in a serious condition.
In Israel, one of the most prominent Charedi rabbis, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, from the Lithuanian community, urged followers to pray alone and not attend a minyan.
The death toll from coronavirus continued to rise within the British Jewish community, up to 34 reported on Friday from 25 the day before, according to the Board of Deputie of British Jews.
There have been 1,228 deaths from the virus in Britain according to the latest count, out of 14,543 cases.
Given that British Jews represent only roughly half of a percent of the national population of 66 million, the number of deaths in the community – at around 4.5 per cent of the national total – is disproportionately high. British Jewry has a more elderly profile than the country as a whole. Around 250,000 Jews live in the country.
The British government has decided a national lockdown for at least three weeks.