In Jerusalem’s Old City, The Devout Adjust To Worship In The Coronavirus Era

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A worshiper prays outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Jesus’ tomb. Its wooden doors are shut now to deter the spread of COVID-19, and only clergy may perform the daily prayer rituals inside.

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Muslim men practice social distancing during Friday prayers next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City in July.

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Mustafa Abu Sway, on the Al-Aqsa Mosque advisory council, sits outside the mosque next to his yellow carpet. Worshipers are asked to bring their own prayer carpets from home now. Abu Sway says he’s never laundered so many carpets in his life.

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Father Amjad Sabbara celebrates Jerusalem’s main Roman Catholic Mass at St. Saviour’s Monastery — on Facebook Live.

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For months, Father Amjad Sabbara held a series of mini-Masses so everyone in his community could attend a socially distanced Mass at least once a month. But a second wave of infections afflicting Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhood changed that.

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Yehezkel Cahn, 71, runs morning prayers at the Ramban Synagogue in the heart of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

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A young worshiper passes the signs and cartoons Yehezkel Cahn has tacked up at the entrance to the small synagogue. The number 19 in red (at right) indicates the maximum number of worshipers allowed indoors, per Israeli government guidelines at the time.

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Yehezkel Cahn at the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Old City.

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Yehezkel Cahn at the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Old City.

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Cahn wears blue surgical gloves as he cradles the Torah scroll, turning his back as he passes a veteran white-haired worshiper. He says the man often forgets the synagogue’s new health rule against kissing the scroll, a traditional sign of respect performed by touching the scroll and then kissing one’s own hand as it is paraded around the congregation.

«I don’t want him to kiss, Cahn says.

Cahn repeatedly looks at his watch, to usher in three shifts of morning worshipers in 45-minute slots. He’s keeping the prayer groups small. Inside the synagogue, he allows no more than 10 men. That’s the minimum quorum required by Orthodox Judaism for Torah readings and certain prayers — and the government’s latest restriction on indoor gatherings is 10 people. Whoever doesn’t get a seat indoors prays in the courtyard.

As with efforts by Jerusalem’s other major faiths, it’s an attempt to protect worshipers’ safety during the pandemic while permitting the uninterrupted rhythm of religious life.