From the early morning hours of Feb. 11, public address systems made entreaties to the public of Bnei Brak, Israel’s largest ultra-Orthodox city, situated near Tel Aviv. Residents were invited to come that night and receive vaccinations against COVID-19 at four Health Funds sites. Provisions were made in advance for keeping men and women in separate areas, and even small rewards were distributed. They included a container of the traditional Jewish Sabbath dish cholent, a traditional challah loaf bread for the Sabbath and a can of Coca-Cola.
The “Green Night” campaign initiated by the Bnei Brak municipality was designed to encourage residents of one of Israel’s most crowded cities to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The city had especially high morbidity rates over the past year; according to the Health Ministry, one in five residents of Bnei Brak had or has COVID-19. Despite this, only 17% of the city’s residents received the first inoculation, and only 9% returned to receive their second. The reason? There has been an avalanche in Israel of fake news, warning both men and women that the vaccination causes fertility problems, among other things. To counter this, the municipality worked with the city’s most reputable rabbis to encourage residents to save themselves from the illness, and get the shot. And it worked!
When the sun rose Feb. 12, it became clear: The city’s initiative achieved its goal and about 3,300 city residents were vaccinated in five hours of a night operation that was widely covered by all the media outlets. Yeshiva students in their 20s were photographed as they left the vaccination sites with smiles on their faces — and bags full of packaged cholent and fresh challah. Due to the success of the project, the “Green Night” initiative will be repeated Feb. 18 in Bnei Brak.
The Health Ministry closely followed this unusual initiative and breathed a sigh of relief over its results, because overall vaccination rates in the country had started to decline from the beginning of February. Early last week, vaccination sites were almost empty and the long, crowded lines of January had disappeared. At the height of the operation, 200,000 people aged 16 and above received vaccination (in the two doses) in the space of a week. Only about 100,000 did so last week, at its low point.
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