@article{1d7bc8c0f20b4f22ab5fec05496f08bb,
title = "The Haredi media, religious identity, and the COVID 19 crisis",
abstract = "When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Israel in March 2020 and the government imposed a number of lockdowns, Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rabbis instructed their followers to continue attending synagogues and engage in Torah study. As a result, the relative number of COVID-19 infections and fatalities in the Haredi community was higher than that of the Israeli population as a whole. This article examines the role of the mass media during the crisis in Israel{\textquoteright}s largest Haredi city of Bnei Beraq, via interviews with 405 of the city{\textquoteright}s residents. It shows that despite rabbinic bans on exposure to the secular media and to the Internet, many Haredim were exposed to them and hence less dependent on the Haredi media.",
keywords = "Bnei Beraq, Covid-19, Haredi community, Israel, health, mass media",
author = "Yoel Cohen and Bruria Adini and Ahuva Spitz",
note = "Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the financial assistance for the research study, approved by Prof. Albert Pinhasov, Rector, and Prof. Yitzhak Shai, Vice-President & Dean of the Research Authority, Ariel University. They would also like to thank Miriam Greenstein for statistical analysis of the data, as well as Shir Farhi and Avital Fassi for carrying out the interviews in Bnei Beraq. Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the financial assistance for the research study, approved by Prof. Albert Pinhasov, Rector, and Prof. Yitzhak Shai, Vice-President & Dean of the Research Authority, Ariel University. They would also like to thank Miriam Greenstein for statistical analysis of the data, as well as Shir Farhi and Avital Fassi for carrying out the interviews in Bnei Beraq. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.",
year = "2021",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1080/13537121.2021.1968213",
language = "English",
volume = "27",
pages = "921--935",
journal = "Israel Affairs",
issn = "1353-7121",
publisher = "Routledge",
number = "5",
}