No new deaths: Jewish Covid-19 Mortality total for 18th June 2021: 903

The Board of Deputies has been working with the Jewish community’s burial boards, regional Jewish communities and the Jewish Small Communities Network to collate Covid death figures. As of the week ending 18^th June 2021 there have been 903 Jewish funerals carried out where the deceased contracted Covid-19. This represents no increase of reported funerals on the previous two weeks. The last reported death from Covid-19 in the Jewish community was in the week ending 9^th April. (See  below for a graph and a table of statistics.)

We wish bereaving families a long life and pray that the memory of their loved ones should be for a blessing.

Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said: “The fact that the Jewish community has recorded no new deaths for more than two months is a welcome milestone. We have taken a heavy toll from Covid but the efforts of everyone in the community means that the pandemic is under control for now. However, the virus is still with us and the Delta variant is spreading quickly. I urge anyone who hasn’t already been vaccinated to get their jab as soon as possible and for everyone to observe the regulations to the letter.”

The Board of Deputies is liaising with seven of the largest denominational burial boards to collate an indicator of deaths where Covid-19 was a factor. These denominational burial boards are: The Adath Yisroel Burial Society, the Federation of Synagogues Burial Society, the Joint Jewish Burial Board, Liberal Judaism, the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Community, the United Synagogue Burial Society and the Western Charitable Foundation. The Board of Deputies has either received reports from the following regional communities, or has accounted for them through the largest denominational burial boards where they cover that particular community: Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bognor Regis, Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove, Canvey Island, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Cornwall, Darlington, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Exeter, Gateshead, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Solihull, Southend, Southport, St Annes, Stoke on Trent and Swansea. The indicator enumerates how many funerals were carried out by these burial societies and communities where COVID-19 appeared on the death certificate of the deceased. As such it covers both deaths in hospitals and in the wider community. When making comparisons of data, please note that data separate to this indicator may not have similar parameters. Please do not take successive figures as indicative of exact trend as smaller communities cannot report weekly.

Up until 15^th May 2020 only core group counted ( Adath Yisroel Burial Society, Federation, United Synagogue, S&P, Joint Jewish Burial Society, Liberal Judaism, Manchester Orthodox). The spike on the 15^th May you see is in the inclusion of all provincial communities for the first time, when we asked provincial communities for the total number of covid funerals we had carried out. Since that time we have been asking the entire community. We continued on a weekly basis, until we started fortnightly reporting from 28^th May 2021.

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