121 UK Jews have died after contracting coronavirus

The number of coronavirus-related fatalities has risen to 121 among UK Jews as of Monday, up from 44 seven days ago, according to data collated by the Board of Deputies.

The figures, released on Tuesday, refer to the number of funerals carried out by burial societies, where covid-19 appeared on the deceased’s death certificate.

They include fatalities in hospital and beyond, using data gathered from six of the largest Orthodox and denominational burial boards.

They 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 and the United Synagogue Burial Society.

“We wish their families a long life, and pray that the memory of their loved ones should be for a blessing,” a spokesperson for the Board of Deputies said on Tuesday.

The figures come after Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis described a “religious and moral imperative” to stay at home during the pandemic on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day on Monday.

He said: “Staying at home is not easy, but it is the best way to show our appreciation to the medical staff to whom we owe so much. It is a religious and moral imperative to do so.”

“The Talmud teaches, ‘If you save one life, it is as if you’ve saved the whole world’. Every single one of us can now achieve this lofty objective in a very simple way. All we need to do is stay at home.”

The national death toll rose to 6,159 as of Monday afternoon, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed on Tuesday.