Bnei Brak in the coronavirus era
Bnei Brak in the coronavirus eraFlash 90

Top Health Ministry officials, including Director of the ministry Hezi Levy, met with senior Rabbinical Court judges in Bnei Brak yesterday, in an attempt to promote coronavirus vaccination in the haredi sector, Kan News reports.

Members of the Court told the officials that while they were not opposed to a coronavirus vaccine in principle, they considered it premature to give their sanction for it.

"Research carried out over just a few months does not suffice to rule out the possibility that, in the long term, problems will be discovered," Av Beit Din Rabbi Yehuda Silman, the Court's head, explained to Ministry officials.

"I am not saying this to imply that the concept is incorrect - it is. If you ask me, it is proper to seek a vaccine for coronavirus."

Nevertheless, he added that, "We are not required to be more cautious than the doctors. [But] if I hear that half the doctors in the state of Israel refuse to take the vaccine at this stage - that's the rough number being quoted - then we also say we won't refuse to take it, but we would also wait to sanction it," he insisted.

According to the report, the visit of Health Ministry officials to the Rabbinical Court was prompted in part by the dissemination of pamphlets in haredi neighborhoods in which concerns were raised regarding the safety of the coronavirus vaccine.