On Tuesday of last week, after less drastic measures had failed to stem the outbreak, Rockland County executive Ed Day declared a state of emergency barring children and adolescents under 18 years of age from public places unless they have received their vaccination. While many health experts applauded this as a common-sense move, many in the ultra-Orthodox community expressed concerns amidst rising anti-semitism that a public health concern would be used as a pretense for an invasion of their cloistered communities.
Now, I know what some of you are probably thinking – that this is another case of religious people doing a harmful, irrational thing, because their religion has some crazy rule prohibiting them from doing what sensible policy would dictate they ought to do. However, in this case, such a conclusion would be incorrect.
Of course, it is understandable how one would come to such a conclusion. There have been plenty of cases in which exactly that has happened. With regards to vaccination, of course, it is difficult to find any religion with significant following that has any tenets explicitly forbidding it, it is far more common to find religious groups whose authorities ostensibly leave the decision up to individual conscience yet promote teachings that clearly would predispose said individual consciences to object to vaccination.
However, none of that is the case in this instance. The Jewish rabbinate overwhelmingly rejects the notion of vaccination being a matter of individual conscience, instead asserting that proper vaccination is obligatory. “The Torah commands us to take care of ourselves, so, you know, vaccinating is the ABCs of taking care of yourself,” says Rabbi Benzion Klatzko, an Orthodox rabbi and founder of Shabbat.com. With regards to the vaccination of children, he is equally blunt. “Obviously vaccinate your child,” he says. “If you want to be a parent it’s your obligation to take care of your child and science and medicine shouldn’t be ignored.”
He is far from being alone in his position. Chabad’s online magazine also has an entire article explaining in detail how under Jewish law, having whatever vaccines are medically recommended is obligatory even for those who do not want to.
According to an article in Forward, Rabbi Aaron Glatt (who is both a Rabbi and a physician) even refers to believing the word of anti-vaxxer propaganda as “a form of avodah zora” or idol worship. However, despite all the warnings not only from health experts, but from an overwhelming consensus of Rabbis, there are still some ultra-Orthodox Jews who insist on practicing this kind of idol worship.
This is undoubtedly among the factors that contributed to the measles outbreak in Rockland County. Anti-vaxxers are a fringe group – and the Orthodox Jews among them are a fringe group within the Orthodox Jewish community. Most Orthodox Jews are vaccinated – but not nearly enough to satisfy the requirements for herd immunity, that being the collective immunity of a population to a disease that prevents a disease from making inroads into that population. Herd immunity is especially important as it is the only thing that can protect members of a population that can not be immunized – such as infants who are too young to be vaccinated and somewhat older children who have specific medical conditions that place them at elevated risk of adverse reaction to the vaccines.
That said, many people, in effort to protect themselves and their children from infectious diseases, have resorted to practices of cultural profiling – suspecting people of being unvaccinated solely on the basis of them visibly being Orthodox Jews. According to Rabbi Klatzko: “That plays into the old canard of Jews being dirty or Jews being disease-ridden”.
The stereotype to which he refers has historically been a significant contributing factor to the persecution of Jews in Europe. Its resurgence in modern day Rockland County is disturbing enough when it only affects the behavior of private citizens. However, now with the ban on unvaccinated minors in public places, there is concern that this profiling might affect the enforcement of this emergency measure, particularly if the enforcement is in any way complaint driven.
But not only is this antisemitic stereotype harmful to Jews. It also leads to bad health decisions, whether on a personal basis or a public basis. Way too many Orthodox Jews are unvaccinated, but most are vaccinated. Furthermore, the anti-vaccine propaganda that is responsible for many of them opting out of vaccination for themselves and their kids is by no means specific to Orthodox Jews. There are plenty of people who aren’t Orthodox Jews or even Jews at all refusing vaccination due to the very same counter-scientific propaganda.
Also, there are a number of other groups other than Orthodox Jews who have factions within them refusing vaccination. Though not all of those other groups have visibly distinct styles of dress, some of them do – but in no event can such indications be relied upon to determine someone’s vaccinations status. “You don’t label whether you vaccinate or not based on what your religious background is,” says Dr. Deborah Rotenstein, a pediatric endocrinologist in Pittsburgh, PA, herself an Orthodox Jew. “It’s a document. You’ve either vaccinated or you didn’t.”
Protecting one’s children and the general public from harmful pathogens spread by those who have not been properly immunized is not only reasonable thing to do. It is the right thing to do. But attempting to do so by profiling people based on visible signs of their cultural or religious background will not only result in the stigmatization of innocent people. It also is not an effective way to go about protecting anyone’s health at all.
Great!