Religious Practice And Public Health At A Crossroads In The Time Of COVID-19
April 2, 2020 • By Inna Materese
In Lakewood, New Jersey, an Orthodox Jewish local couple was celebrating their child’s bar mitzvah in the outdoor spaces surrounding their home. In celebration of this crucial rite of passage in the Jewish community, the couple gathered approximately 50 people in their backyard and the streets in front of their home. What is typically a joyous and festive religious celebration in the life of a Jewish teenager resulted in five counts of child endangerment on March 20, 2020. The couple was charged with child endangerment counts for each of their five children.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has issued numerous Orders banning gatherings and ordering social distancing in New Jersey, as have governors of many other hotspot states around the country. Ocean County and local Lakewood, New Jersey, police have, despite these Orders, broken up a number of gatherings in the past couple of weeks.
The unprecedented coronavirus pandemic has presented all of us with challenges, choices, and moral/ethical dilemmas that we have never faced before. The intersection between the practice of one’s religion and the national public health overall is no different. This clash between religious rights and public health is yet another tricky facet of life in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.
These circumstances make very clear that the failure to socially distance is not as simple as a “selfish” choice to disregard public health protocols. In the case of the Orthodox Jewish community - or any other such community - what are the counter-balancing considerations for failure to celebrate a child’s religious entry into the practice of his or her faith? What if the community does not utilize Internet and/or other virtual socialization mechanisms to enable a celebration from afar? What if their Orthodox faith does not permit the virtual completion of the bar mitzvah rituals? What if the failure to complete these rituals in the proper form at a specific time has heavy social, religious, and moral ramifications for the family and that community at large.
Of equal concern is the possible vilification of individuals who refuse to abide by social distancing standards. In the Lakewood, New Jersey area, for example, repeated defiance of Governor Phil Murphy’s various public health Orders have led to multiple anti-Semitic threats against the locale’s large Orthodox Jewish community.
There is no doubt that, at this unprecedented time in our country’s public health crossroads, social distancing and quarantine measures are the paramount and primary concerns at the moment, to which all should strictly adhere. However, stories like this showcase the complex possible issues surrounding the simple orders to “stay at home”.