The Jewish community may have initially been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic because it did not lock down early enough, new data suggests.

A new report from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) has found that while British Jews — from Charedim to progressives — were hit hard by the first wave, the community later experienced similar mortality levels to London, where 70 per cent of its members reside.

The total number of deaths reported in April 2020 among Jewish people in England and Wales was 280 per cent higher than normal, a figure far exceeding the levels in the capital.

But in January 2021, excess deaths among Jewish people stood at 69 per cent, slightly lower than that among Londoners, which was 77 per cent. However, they remained higher than among the overall population of England and Wales, which was 32 per cent.

JPR Executive Director Dr Jonathan Boyd, said: “The contrast in how British Jews were affected by the first and second waves is profoundly revealing. The story of the second wave proves that the mortality levels seen in spring 2020 were anomalous.

“It seems highly probable that we died in such large numbers at that time because we didn’t lock down early enough. And by ‘we’ I don’t mean we, the UK government. I mean we, the Jewish community. These new findings contain serious, life and death lessons that community leaders have to learn for the future.”

The report also found that Orthodox Jews had slightly higher excess mortality levels than progressive Jews in 2020 (30 per cent compared to 22 per cent.) But it also revealed that the first wave had a greater impact on Orthodox Jews, while progressives were more affected by the second peak.

The report said: “While it was initially hypothesised that strictly Orthodox Jews might suffer disproportionately from coronavirus because they are socioeconomically disadvantaged, live in large households, have lower secular education and may be less ‘compliant’ with government guidelines, further research showed that elevated British Jewish mortality in the first wave of the pandemic could not be explained by developments in the strictly Orthodox segment of British Jews alone.”