H EADLINES
Israelis Wonder When Normal Life Will Return
I SR AEL
LINDA GRADSTEIN | JTA.ORG
JERUSALEM — Aft er receiving
his fi rst dose of the COVID
vaccine in December, Jonathan
Livny, 77, assumed life would
at last return to normal for
Israelis like him.

Livny, who lives in Jerusalem,
was among the fi rst Israelis
to take the shot, and became
fully vaccinated in January. He
received his “green passport” —
an offi cial certifi cation that he
was immune to the disease.

But nearly one month later,
the passport hasn’t done him
much good. Even though he’s
now at much lower risk, Livny
still must obey the country’s
strict lockdown measures, which
bar everyone from a wide range
of leisure activities whether or
not they’ve been vaccinated.

Th e restrictions hit home
for Livny a couple weeks ago.

He and his wife, a plastic
surgeon, travel frequently, and
had planned a trip to Dubai
late last month for a medical
conference. Th eir trip was
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canceled, however, when Israel
shut down its airport to limit
the virus’ spread.

“I thought it would be a
passport to health and a
passport to freedom,” Livny
said. “Now they say they’re not
sure the vaccine works against
the British variant or the
South African variant. Th en I
thought it would be a passport
for travel. But now if I want to
travel, I need to do a test 72
hours before I leave and then
when I come back I need to do
it again. So what good does it
do me?”
Israel’s aggressive vaccina-
tion drive has become a national
source of pride, but it has not yet
heralded the return to pre-pan-
demic times that many had
expected. Even as more than
40% of Israelis have gotten at
least one dose of the vaccine, far
outpacing the rest of the world,
COVID rates remain stubbornly
high, and the vaccination
campaign has slowed.

Now, as Israel is emerging
from a six-week lockdown,
its third since the pandemic
began, businesses and their
patrons are rebelling against
a reopening that they feel
has been too sluggish. Th ree
large shopping malls — in the
cities of Bat Yam, Karmiel and
Petach Tivkah — opened Feb.

Israeli police offi cers inspect a mall in the city of Bat Yam that opened in violation of COVID-19 lockdown
restrictions on Feb. 11.

Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90 via JTA.org
11 in violation of government
regulations. It was part of a
revolt instigated by a forum
that represents 400 mall
owners, restaurant owners and
chain stores.

Th e group made their own
rules dictating whom to allow
into stores — fi nally allowing
Israelis to make use of their
“green passports.” Entrance
was restricted to those older
than 60 with two vaccine
doses, or anyone younger who
had either received at least one
shot, recovered from COVID
or tested negative in the past 72
hours. Children 16 and under
also were allowed in.

Police offi cers visited the
stores and ordered them to
close but did not issue fi nes.

“Th ere is no diff erence
between malls, which are
closed, and supermarkets or
drugstores, which are open,”
said Yaakov Kantrowitz, 26,
the branch manager of a house-
wares chain in a strip mall
in the central city of Rishon
Lezion. He complained that the
government “said that people
were getting corona in malls,
but they’ve been closed for the
past six weeks and the infec-
tion rates haven’t gone down.

Th at proves we are not the
reason for infections.”
Kantrowitz hasn’t fully
reopened but found an innova-
tive workaround: His store
began off ering “take-away”
shopping on Feb. 14.

“We have a table up front at
the entrance with a catalogue,
people choose what they want,
and [employees] bring it to
them,” he said. “Restaurants
are allowed to do take-away, so
why aren’t stores as well?”
Police have not visited his
store, Kantrowitz said, and
he is careful not to allow
anyone inside even though it
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H EADLINES
is spacious, measuring 10,000
square feet. Th e store has
been closed for a total of four
months over the past year,
and all 30 workers were put
on furlough. Now Kantrowitz
has hired back fi ve workers and
hopes that stores and malls will
reopen soon.

Th e government is consid-
ering a series of regulations that
will limit entry to places like
gyms, concerts and museums
— and eventually cafes and
restaurants — to those with
either “green passports” or
a negative COVID test from
within 72 hours. Some schools
also reopened on Th ursday aft er
six weeks of remote learning
— the most recent in a series
of school closures in Israel that
have spanned months. Th e
government may require all
teachers to either vaccinate or
be tested every two days.

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vaccinated on Th ursday night,
they’d get a free serving of
cholent, a meat stew popular
with Orthodox Jews.

“We welcome the initia-
tive by Bnei Brak to give out
bags of cholent to those who
are vaccinated tomorrow,”
Zaka, an Orthodox emergency
medical service, posted on
Twitter. “We’ve already been
putting non-vaccinated people
in [body] bags for more than a
year. Go vaccinate!”
Haredi Israelis tend to vacci-
nate at lower rates even as the
percentage of deaths in their
community has been especially
high. A recent investigation
found that 1 in 73 haredi Israelis
over the age of 65 had died from
COVID, about four times the
rate of the general population.

Despite the lockdown, some
haredi Israelis have defied
restrictions and reopened
It will take a long time to see the long-term
effects. They are basically doing a study on
people, which I find really unethical.”
ADINA ARAZI
Israel is also considering an
agreement with Greece to allow
tourism between the countries
for those who are vaccinated.

But a segment of Israelis
remains reluctant to get the shot.

While Israel’s vaccine rollout
had ramped up to 200,000
people vaccinated daily, the
pace has slowed signifi cantly
in the past week. According to
government data, while more
than 90% of Israelis older than
60 have been vaccinated, the
equivalent fi gure is 70% for
haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews
and 64% for Arab Israelis.

With some vaccination
centers half empty, local
municipalities are trying to
fi nd incentives to get rates
back up. In the haredi city of
Bnei Brak, where vaccination
rates are among the lowest in
the country, fi rst responders
told residents that if they got
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Vaccine skepticism extends
beyond the haredi commu-
nity. While most older and
high-risk Israelis have rushed
to be vaccinated, some younger
Israelis are more torn about
taking the vaccine.

Adina Arazi, 47, who lives
in the southern city of Netivot
and teaches hydrotherapy,
said she is not an anti-vaxxer.

Her two children, a 20-year-
old son with special needs and
a 16-year-old daughter, got
all of their traditional child-
hood vaccines. But this time
nobody in her family is being
immunized from COVID.

“I feel like we’ve moved a little
too fast,” she said. “It will take a
long time to see the long-term
eff ects. Th ey are basically doing
a study on people, which I fi nd
really unethical.” ●
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