“We’re under attack,” said Yonathan, a blue mask across his shaggy beard in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city where Israeli authorities have restored a partial Covid-19 lockdown.

For many of Israel’s ulta-Orthodox Jews, the resumption this week of coronavirus restrictions feels as if they have been specifically targeted — and many are frustrated.

At 7:00 am on Monday in this satellite city of Tel Aviv, men in black frock coats were hurrying on their way, some twirling their curly sidelocks as they walked, in the morning’s early light.