Published: 26 March 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
LAST WEEK, when Health Minister Yaakov Litzman was asked whether Israelis will be forced to remain in lockdown until Pesach, he answered: “we are praying and hoping that the Messiah will arrive before Passover, the time of our redemption. I am sure that the Messiah will come and bring us out as [God] brought us out of Egypt. Soon we will go out in freedom and the Messiah will come and redeem us from all the troubles of the world.”
Whether you believe in the Messiah literally or figuratively, whether you do not believe in him (or her) or whether you believe – according the current Israeli joke - that the Messiah is stuck in quarantine, this was not the answer that the Israeli public needed from its health minister in these tense times.
Once again, Litzman proved that he is not – and never has been – the right person for the job of health minister.
This is not because he is ultra-Orthodox or because he has appeared at press conferences wearing a spodik (the tall, brown fur hat worn by some Chasidic Jews). The many wonderful medical aid organisations created by ultra-Orthodox rabbis are proof, (if anyone needed such proof), that being Haredi and managing large institutions or logistical campaigns are not contradictory.
Litzman is unfit for the job of health minister not because he is Haredi, but because he has shown that he is unable to place the needs of the larger Israeli public above the interests of his community and, even worse, above his own personal interests. Not only has Litzman often betrayed the responsibilities of his office; some of his actions are allegedly criminal.
Litzman did not want to be health minister. The party he leads, Agudat Yisrael, is one of the ultra-Orthodox parties that is ambivalent, at best, about the existence of the State of Israel, because it was established by Zionist activists and not by the word of God.
Litzman is unfit for the job of health minister not because he is Haredi, but because he has shown that he is unable to place the needs of the larger Israeli public above the interests of his community and, even worse, above his own personal interests
As a result, coalition agreements have allowed the representatives of Agudat Yisrael to wield the political power that comes with being in the government without actually assuming the responsibility it entails. In a not-very-subtle arrangement, the representatives only accept positions as deputy ministers. Litzman was a deputy minister until this deal was struck down by the Israeli courts.
Litzman is not merely Haredi – he is a member of the Gur Chasidic community, which is one of the most conservative communities in the world. Unlike many Haredim, his world does not look for bridges between modernity, faith and tradition. His world believes that Jewish law and belief are superior to secular rules and science.
His world rejects science. Agudat Yisrael has been at the forefront of the battle against introducing basic studies – including mathematics and science – into their school system.
He represents a community that is very willing to accept the fruits of medical sciences, including the medications and medical technologies that may yet save us from this pandemic, but unwilling to contribute to their discovery and development.
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Throughout this crisis, Litzman, whether due to political expediency or his religious beliefs, has been more loyal to the dictates of his community than to the needs of the Israeli public. When the government ordered the closure of educational institutions, Litzman attempted to exempt the ultra-Orthodox yeshivot; the professional authorities refused.
As the restrictions grew stricter, and even more public institutions were shut down, many yeshivot remained open, including a prominent one belonging to the Gur Chassidim – but Litzman did not make any public statement about complying with the law or use the powers of his office to shut them down.
Yet Litzman’s failure began long before the Covid-19 pandemic. He has been the (deputy) health minister for the better part of a decade, and so bears responsibility for the failure of Israel’s medical system to prepare for this eventuality.
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In November 2019, The Taub Centre, a nonpartisan social policy and research institute, issued a report stating that the Health Ministry had failed to establish a national strategy. Israel ranks among the lowest of the OECD nations in terms of the beds-to-patient and availability of equipment ratios, the size and location of hospitals, and staffing and training. Only ten years ago, it ranked among the highest.
Moreover, Israeli society is in lockdown now, with all the psycho-social, economic and political consequences, because it must “flatten the curve” and prevent a meltdown of the health system. According to many experts, the system would be more ready to deal with the expected outbreak if the Health Ministry, which Litzman has headed and continues to head, had been sufficiently proactive.
His ministry has failed at other projects, too, and at least some of these failures have been over conflicts between his community’s and his own interests and the greater good.
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Litzman, for instance, opposed legislation prohibiting tobacco advertising in newspapers, arguing that it would bankrupt the newspapers that depend on advertising revenue. In his second tenure (starting 2015), Litzman was criticised for opposing legislation prohibiting tobacco advertising in newspapers. Litzman argued that such law would bankrupt newspapers, who rely on the advertising revenue.
As press reports revealed, Litzman’s party, Agudat Yisrael, publishes Hamodia, a widely read publication where his wife is employed. He finally agreed to a bill restricting the advertising -- but only after other MKs threatened to vote against a bill that would limit businesses from operating on Shabbat and holidays. And even then, he ensured that the advertising ban did not apply to printed publications, since the ultra-Orthodox do not widely use the internet and print is their primary form of media.
Readers of The Jewish Independent are only too well aware that Litzman is accused of obstructing the extradition of Malka Leifer by attempting to obtain false psychiatric examinations that would deem her unfit to face trial
But if some of these are conflicts of conscience or interest, some of Litzman’s actions are apparently blatantly criminal. Readers of The Jewish Independent are only too well aware that Litzman is accused of obstructing the extradition of Malka Leifer by attempting to obtain false psychiatric examinations that would deem her unfit to face trial in Australia for 74 counts of child sex abuse.
He also faces bribery charges for allegedly helping to prevent the shutdown of a food business that his own health ministry had determined had serious sanitation violations. For these alleged offences, the Israel police have recommended that he be charged with bribery, fraud, witness tampering and breach of trust.
Litzman was appointed health minister only due to crass coalition agreements and the power that the ultra-Orthodox wield in Israel’s political system. Now, as Covid-19 threatens us all, Israelis in lockdown have the right to have confidence that our leaders, and especially the leaders of our health service, are acting wisely, rationally, professionally and scientifically for the good of all of society.
Yaakov Litzman can’t fill this role. He shouldn’t have been health minister to begin with. He certainly should not be health minister now.
Illustration: Avi Katz