Hundreds of UK Jews break virus rules with Lag B’Omer celebration
Adults and children seen dancing and congregating in close quarters, despite social distancing restrictions meant to prevent the spread of coronavirus
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Hundreds of residents of the ultra-Orthodox community in London’s Stamford Hill area took part on Tuesday in an event to mark the Lag B’Omer holiday, in contravention of British regulations against gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 300 revelers took part in the celebration, crowding the streets around a large bonfire, according to the Mail Online.
Photos of the event showed adults and children dancing and congregating in close quarters, despite social distancing restrictions meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
None of the participants appeared to be wearing face masks, although one donned a gorilla mask as he rode on the shoulders of another.
Hasidic Jews ignore social distancing during coronavirus lockdown https://t.co/CiZ00hhu8w via @MailOnline
— sajadah (@sajadah) May 12, 2020
Lag B’Omer has become a key holiday in the Jewish mystical tradition, said to be the day of the death of the Tannaitic mystic Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and also marking the anniversary of when he is traditionally believed to have conveyed the text of the seminal Jewish mystical work, the Zohar. It is marked by lighting bonfires.
In Israel, hundreds of residents of the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim crowded the city’s streets Monday night to mark Lag B’Omer, ignoring a government ban on celebrations. Bonfires and gatherings were also reported in Beit Shemesh, with the incidents drawing an angry rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who ordered a police crackdown on the illegal celebrations.
The Stamford Hill event comes weeks after police in London shut down a Jewish wedding attended by dozens of guests.
In the UK, a government-ordered lockdown, which began March 23, has reduced the transmission of the novel coronavirus, but the daily death toll remains uncomfortably high. The UK recorded nearly 32,000 deaths as of Sunday, the most in Europe and the second-highest pandemic toll worldwide.
The British Jewish community has been particularly hard hit during the pandemic, with 440 deaths according to the Board of Deputies umbrella organization. This amounts to roughly 1.35 percent of the total 32,692 deaths in the UK, while the Jewish community accounts for only 0.3% of the UK population.
The Times of Israel Community.