Promoting Fear - A Rabbi Hides Behind Religion
Dear Rabbi Glatt
Your passion is understood.
But you are not my doctor.
You do not know my child.
You do not know what we have been through.
All I see is you calling me names: "anti-vaxxer"
All I see is you blaming me for causing a Chillul Hashem, when you seem to not understand that those who hate Jews don't need an excuse. (Is the State of Israel a Chillul Hashem? Its existence seems to anger a lot of anti-Semites. Do we stop Bris Milah because anti-Semites don't like it? Do we stop shechting animals because of anti-Semitic activists? Should we stop eating Matzah on Pesach because there are some crazy anti-Semites who still perpetuate blood-libel claims? Is it a Chillul Hashem when Jews move into a town in New Jersey and try to build an Eruv?)
A Chillul Hashem happens when Jews do illegal activity, or hide behind their frumkeit to justify criminal behavior (which most often happens in finances).
Here, there is no crime. Here, there are justifiable reasons (which you disagree with) which guides a course of inaction, making a free choice not to vaccinate.
Here there is overreach by "authorities," name-calling, and a lot of mud-slinging over a disagreement which, those who are honest, can't really pinpoint. Anyone who gets measles after not vaccinating understood the risk. Anyone who vaccinates should either be protected, or if they get measles after vaccination should blame the vaccine manufacturer for failing them (or even giving them the disease).
I know what the media tells us about where measles comes from. But I am very suspicious of the media when it comes to reporting on the Jews. As should you.
Your presumption that all those who spread disease are "heimishe unvaccinated" people is unfounded and unwarranted. In the same sentence that you decry anti-Semitism, you confirm an anti-Semitic trope! Did you do your own research, or are you just repeating media lies? The fact is that most adults (Jewish or not) who are "vaccinated" have waned immunity because we were all lied to and vaccines DON'T last forever.
There is a small, yet very vocal and influential group of “anti-vaxxers” living in our heimishe (haredi) communities. While I am not questioning their love for their children, they are causing a tremendous chillul Hashem (defamation of G-d's name, ed.) and putting all Jews at great risk, both from measles, and rachmana leztlan, antisemitism. I plead that everyone read this critically important pikuach nefashos (1) article.
All the cases of measles identified so far in this very large, ongoing outbreak are traceable to haredi communities in Eretz Yisroel, Europe, New York, New Jersey, Michigan and elsewhere. This has made countless headlines in the medical and secular press, all revolving around Orthodox / Haredi Jews spreading disease.
Imagine what the headlines were in the Dark Ages regarding the Jews and Black Plague. Hashem yerachem. And then it was a libel.
All the cases are directly related to heimishe unvaccinated persons – not housekeepers, janitors, nor other people from outside our community, as has been incorrectly suggested.
There is absolutely no one who disagrees with the psak that a parent must remove his or her child to safety when danger is present. Indeed, this psak serves, in part, as the basis for the ruling of HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l, that providing normal childhood vaccinations is a parental obligation.
HaRav Asher Weiss, shlita, poseik for Shaare Zedek Hospital, maintains that it is a mitzvah and chiyuv to get vaccinated. HaRav Weiss further states that yeshivas have the right – and even the obligation – to protect students and refuse admission to unvaccinated children. HaRav Yitzchok Zilberstein, shlita, and HaRav Elyashiv have ruled that parents may insist that unvaccinated children be excluded from class so that their children are not put at unnecessary risk.
HaRav Moshe Shternbuch, shlita, head of the Eidah HaCharedis in Eretz Yisroel, has written an extensive teshuva stating exactly the same psak.
Almost all other gedolei Yisroel – including HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt” l, HaRav Yehoshua Newirth, zt” l, and, yibadeil bein chayim lechayim, HaRav Elya Brudny, HaRav J. David Bleich, HaRav Reuven Feinstein, HaRav Hershel Schachter, and HaRav Mordechai Willig, shlita– have all ruled that there is no basis in halakha for suggesting that vaccinations be avoided. All strongly require children in our outbreak setting to be vaccinated immediately.
It is downright dishonest to officially attest that Jewish law forbids vaccination, which is the only way to avoid mandatory state vaccination laws in NY and NJ. No poseik ever has stated that vaccination is against Jewish law.
It is ignorant to state that vaccinations contain non-kosher materials and are therefore assur (forbidden). All the great poskim permit porcine (pig) valves for people with heart disease, and pig or non-kosher beef insulin to be used by diabetics.
The MMR has been conclusively shown in numerous, carefully-done scientific studies in millions of patients to be absolutely unrelated to autism. Indeed, the most recent study looking at over 600,000 children followed for years demonstrated that autism was actually less common in vaccinated children.
These are just three examples of misinformation provided by orthodox anti-vaxxers. Why do we let such incorrect non-halakhic, non-scientific positions to be the cause of a huge chillul Hashem?
Why are people not following the medical experts as halakha requires? Why are precious children unnecessarily exposed to lethal illnesses? How could we cause “Orthodox Jews Cause Disease” to be the lead story on major print and other news media? Why are health departments and governments in our “medina shel chessed” (refers to the US, ed.) talking about fining Jews and closing Yeshivas? Why are non-Jews afraid to sit next to us on trains or go to our stores?
Why have hundreds of unvaccinated Jewish children in the U.S., and thousands more in Israel, contracted measles, a potentially fatal disease? Two have tragically died in Israel, with many more hospitalized. Are we living in the 1950s?
In my humble opinion – as a community rav and board-certified infectious diseases physician – it is because we somehow have forgotten basic halakha. Halakha states that if a dispute exists on whether a patient should eat on Yom Kippur, or if Shabbos desecration is necessary to save a life, we must follow the most competent and/or majority of expert physicians.
On the question of vaccinating children against the major vaccine-preventable illnesses, both the most competent and the majority of experts hold the same view. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, all 50 State Departments of Health in the U.S., the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, the American College of Physicians, plus every other major professional infection control organization in the world are unanimous in their opinion. “Leis man depalig.” No expert organization disagrees.
The evidence is overwhelming that vaccination is the only way to control these preventable fatal diseases. B’chasdei Hashem (due to G-d's kindness, ed.) no one dies anymore of smallpox; polio is almost wiped out. Why? Solely because of very successful vaccination programs. Rachmana liztlan (May G-d have mercy on us, ed.), why should anyone in 5779 die from measles?
Imagine if parents were to insist their child come to school armed with a revolver. Would even the most ardent gun rights activist defend them? Of course not. So why are we letting children come to our shuls, schools, and camps spreading serious potentially life-threatening illness that could have been prevented by vaccination?
We are living in very scary times, replete with anti-Semitism, chillul Hashem, and fatal contagious illnesses. I feel compelled to publicly speak out (again) against “vaccination hesitancy, and the grossly inaccurate halakhic and medical information being publicized by well-meaning but totally ignorant orthodox Jewish anti-vaxxers. It’s a matter of pikuach nefesh.
Notes:
(1) Pikuach nefesh: The principle in Jewish law that the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious consideration. When the life of a specific person is in danger, almost any mitzvah lo ta'aseh (command to not do an action) of the Torah becomes inapplicable.
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt is Director, Halachah & Medicine Commission, Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim
Your passion is understood.
But you are not my doctor.
You do not know my child.
You do not know what we have been through.
All I see is you calling me names: "anti-vaxxer"
All I see is you blaming me for causing a Chillul Hashem, when you seem to not understand that those who hate Jews don't need an excuse. (Is the State of Israel a Chillul Hashem? Its existence seems to anger a lot of anti-Semites. Do we stop Bris Milah because anti-Semites don't like it? Do we stop shechting animals because of anti-Semitic activists? Should we stop eating Matzah on Pesach because there are some crazy anti-Semites who still perpetuate blood-libel claims? Is it a Chillul Hashem when Jews move into a town in New Jersey and try to build an Eruv?)
A Chillul Hashem happens when Jews do illegal activity, or hide behind their frumkeit to justify criminal behavior (which most often happens in finances).
Here, there is no crime. Here, there are justifiable reasons (which you disagree with) which guides a course of inaction, making a free choice not to vaccinate.
Here there is overreach by "authorities," name-calling, and a lot of mud-slinging over a disagreement which, those who are honest, can't really pinpoint. Anyone who gets measles after not vaccinating understood the risk. Anyone who vaccinates should either be protected, or if they get measles after vaccination should blame the vaccine manufacturer for failing them (or even giving them the disease).
I know what the media tells us about where measles comes from. But I am very suspicious of the media when it comes to reporting on the Jews. As should you.
Your presumption that all those who spread disease are "heimishe unvaccinated" people is unfounded and unwarranted. In the same sentence that you decry anti-Semitism, you confirm an anti-Semitic trope! Did you do your own research, or are you just repeating media lies? The fact is that most adults (Jewish or not) who are "vaccinated" have waned immunity because we were all lied to and vaccines DON'T last forever.
The only reason I am in this camp is because I blindly followed advice from people like you, until our experience got me to do research and to discover the dirty secrets about vaccines that you are so unwilling to debate with anyone. I know what I know and there's no turning back.
Neither you, nor Rav Elyashiv, nor Rav Weiss, nor Rav Zilberstein, nor Rav Shternbuch are my child's doctor. You are not responsible for my child's medical care, and you have not and will not take responsibility for the fallout from vaccine-injuries people like me have suffered.
(I have no words for the insistence that an unvaccinated child be kept out of yeshiva - do you keep unvaccinated adults out of the classes you teach? Do you also fire unvaccinated teachers? Or do you know like I know - that the unvaccinated are not sick, and that you are just being a bully?)
It is not a question of whether a poseik has ever stated vaccination is against Jewish law. The question is whether the Torah unconditionally obligates me to vaccinate my child no matter the circumstances. (It doesn't, and you know that.)
Would you require someone with Celiac to eat a wheat matzah? There are alternative matzahs.
SO --> Find me an alternative vaccine that is 100% safe and we can have a conversation.
Your claim about the MMR is absolutely false. It has NEVER been tested in anyone but those who are vaccinated. Giving kids 6 vaccines and no MMR and comparing it to kids who got 6 vaccines PLUS MMR is not a double blind placebo study (so much for the Denmark study you quote as being conclusive). That kind of study is basically impossible to do since kids have so many vaccines before they even get MMR. The studies that were done initially in the '70s showed all kinds of problems (when they only studied 279 children or 589 children before releasing to market). A number of Tables here show the numbers of children who suffered "Upper Respiratory Illness" or "GastroIntestinal Illness" among other problems, in some cases for over a month following the test vaccines (and then they stopped monitoring the children). Their conclusion that "The data show that combined live measles-mumps-rubella vaccine containing the RA 27/3 rubella virus component is safe and effective" is an absolute joke. It might be effective. But it is not safe. Read the statistics they gathered!
Saying it is absolutely safe and obligatory is simply not true. The information in that previous link even says:
Saying "not vaccinating is a matter of Pikuach Nefesh" is fear mongering. Measles is far less life-threatening in America today (and it's over in 10 days) than many other activities people engage in and things you would never dream of writing nasty articles about.
https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/water-safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html
http://americanboating.org/boating_fatality.asp
https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-mortality-risk
Fascinating how number 2 and 3 causes of death (in the last link above) is drugs - both legal and illegal. (Vaccines are a drug - no I am not suggesting 100,000 people die from vaccines. But I don't see you telling people not to take medications - even though medications and vaccines are made by the same companies, who must warn the public of the dangers of ALL of their products).
The reason there is vaccine hesitancy in the Orthodox community (you can name-call all you like) is because the people in this camp do not trust you, do not believe the poskim have done their research on vaccines, do not go to poskim for medical advice, and we have our own doctors who guide us to health in a way different than your way
You claim "precious children are unnecessarily exposed to lethal illnesses." Other than your fear-mongering claims, you have no evidence showing people dying from the measles. The baby in Israel had very conflicting reports, and I know for sure that you have not investigated it (or you are being dishonest about the reality).
(You also make no mention of the Mumps epidemic sweeping some areas of the country, which is affecting the FULLY VACCINATED)
Were you honest you'd note that the "leis man d'palig" in the "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Infectious Diseases Society of America" are all parroting the same talking points. The CDC is not an unbiased party without skin in the $$$ game of vaccines.
Neither you, nor Rav Elyashiv, nor Rav Weiss, nor Rav Zilberstein, nor Rav Shternbuch are my child's doctor. You are not responsible for my child's medical care, and you have not and will not take responsibility for the fallout from vaccine-injuries people like me have suffered.
(I have no words for the insistence that an unvaccinated child be kept out of yeshiva - do you keep unvaccinated adults out of the classes you teach? Do you also fire unvaccinated teachers? Or do you know like I know - that the unvaccinated are not sick, and that you are just being a bully?)
It is not a question of whether a poseik has ever stated vaccination is against Jewish law. The question is whether the Torah unconditionally obligates me to vaccinate my child no matter the circumstances. (It doesn't, and you know that.)
Would you require someone with Celiac to eat a wheat matzah? There are alternative matzahs.
SO --> Find me an alternative vaccine that is 100% safe and we can have a conversation.
Your claim about the MMR is absolutely false. It has NEVER been tested in anyone but those who are vaccinated. Giving kids 6 vaccines and no MMR and comparing it to kids who got 6 vaccines PLUS MMR is not a double blind placebo study (so much for the Denmark study you quote as being conclusive). That kind of study is basically impossible to do since kids have so many vaccines before they even get MMR. The studies that were done initially in the '70s showed all kinds of problems (when they only studied 279 children or 589 children before releasing to market). A number of Tables here show the numbers of children who suffered "Upper Respiratory Illness" or "GastroIntestinal Illness" among other problems, in some cases for over a month following the test vaccines (and then they stopped monitoring the children). Their conclusion that "The data show that combined live measles-mumps-rubella vaccine containing the RA 27/3 rubella virus component is safe and effective" is an absolute joke. It might be effective. But it is not safe. Read the statistics they gathered!
Saying it is absolutely safe and obligatory is simply not true. The information in that previous link even says:
"The combined vaccines contain egg protein and should not be given to persons with known sensitivity to egg, chicken, or chicken feathers. All three vaccines contain neomycin and should not be given to persons with sensitivity to neomycin. Persons with leukemia or other immunologic disorders and persons receiving immunosupprcssive drugs should not be vaccinated. Also, the vaccines should not be given to persons with any febrile respiratory illness or other active febrile infection."That's what they knew BEFORE doing the study. But they don't address all the adverse effects they perceived DURING the study.
Saying "not vaccinating is a matter of Pikuach Nefesh" is fear mongering. Measles is far less life-threatening in America today (and it's over in 10 days) than many other activities people engage in and things you would never dream of writing nasty articles about.
https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/water-safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html
http://americanboating.org/boating_fatality.asp
https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-mortality-risk
Fascinating how number 2 and 3 causes of death (in the last link above) is drugs - both legal and illegal. (Vaccines are a drug - no I am not suggesting 100,000 people die from vaccines. But I don't see you telling people not to take medications - even though medications and vaccines are made by the same companies, who must warn the public of the dangers of ALL of their products).
The reason there is vaccine hesitancy in the Orthodox community (you can name-call all you like) is because the people in this camp do not trust you, do not believe the poskim have done their research on vaccines, do not go to poskim for medical advice, and we have our own doctors who guide us to health in a way different than your way
You claim "precious children are unnecessarily exposed to lethal illnesses." Other than your fear-mongering claims, you have no evidence showing people dying from the measles. The baby in Israel had very conflicting reports, and I know for sure that you have not investigated it (or you are being dishonest about the reality).
(You also make no mention of the Mumps epidemic sweeping some areas of the country, which is affecting the FULLY VACCINATED)
Were you honest you'd note that the "leis man d'palig" in the "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Infectious Diseases Society of America" are all parroting the same talking points. The CDC is not an unbiased party without skin in the $$$ game of vaccines.
Imagine if parents were to insist their child come to school armed with a revolver. Would even the most ardent gun rights activist defend them? Of course not. So why are we letting children come to our shuls, schools, and camps spreading serious potentially life-threatening illness that could have been prevented by vaccination?
THIS is your argument? No one is saying people who are sick should come to shuls or schools or camps. If you really are a doctor you know that people who are not vaccinated are not plague-ridden individuals. So why are you perpetuating that lie? Talk about a Chillul Hashem and perpetuating anti-Semitism!!
You probably mean well. But you haven't produced a single shred of actual EVIDENCE to support your claims that the vaccines are safe. (Being effective - though on a limited scale, see MUMPS above - does not mean they are safe.)
As a rabbi, your love of Jews who disagree with you is severely lacking.
Here is your article, for those who want to read your words in full context.
You probably mean well. But you haven't produced a single shred of actual EVIDENCE to support your claims that the vaccines are safe. (Being effective - though on a limited scale, see MUMPS above - does not mean they are safe.)
As a rabbi, your love of Jews who disagree with you is severely lacking.
Here is your article, for those who want to read your words in full context.
Vaccination is Pikuach Nefesh
I plead that every anti-vaxxer read this critically important pikuach nefesh article.
Rabbi.Dr. Aaron Glatt, 11/04/19 11:12 | updated: 10:51
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Rabbi.Dr. Aaron Glatt
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt is director, Halakhah & Medicine Commission at the Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim.Imagine what the headlines were in the Dark Ages regarding the Jews and Black Plague. Hashem yerachem. And then it was a libel.
All the cases are directly related to heimishe unvaccinated persons – not housekeepers, janitors, nor other people from outside our community, as has been incorrectly suggested.
HaRav Moshe Shternbuch, shlita, head of the Eidah HaCharedis in Eretz Yisroel, has written an extensive teshuva stating exactly the same psak.
Almost all other gedolei Yisroel – including HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt” l, HaRav Yehoshua Newirth, zt” l, and, yibadeil bein chayim lechayim, HaRav Elya Brudny, HaRav J. David Bleich, HaRav Reuven Feinstein, HaRav Hershel Schachter, and HaRav Mordechai Willig, shlita– have all ruled that there is no basis in halakha for suggesting that vaccinations be avoided. All strongly require children in our outbreak setting to be vaccinated immediately.
It is downright dishonest to officially attest that Jewish law forbids vaccination, which is the only way to avoid mandatory state vaccination laws in NY and NJ. No poseik ever has stated that vaccination is against Jewish law.
It is ignorant to state that vaccinations contain non-kosher materials and are therefore assur (forbidden). All the great poskim permit porcine (pig) valves for people with heart disease, and pig or non-kosher beef insulin to be used by diabetics.
The MMR has been conclusively shown in numerous, carefully-done scientific studies in millions of patients to be absolutely unrelated to autism. Indeed, the most recent study looking at over 600,000 children followed for years demonstrated that autism was actually less common in vaccinated children.
These are just three examples of misinformation provided by orthodox anti-vaxxers. Why do we let such incorrect non-halakhic, non-scientific positions to be the cause of a huge chillul Hashem?
Why are people not following the medical experts as halakha requires? Why are precious children unnecessarily exposed to lethal illnesses? How could we cause “Orthodox Jews Cause Disease” to be the lead story on major print and other news media? Why are health departments and governments in our “medina shel chessed” (refers to the US, ed.) talking about fining Jews and closing Yeshivas? Why are non-Jews afraid to sit next to us on trains or go to our stores?
In my humble opinion – as a community rav and board-certified infectious diseases physician – it is because we somehow have forgotten basic halakha. Halakha states that if a dispute exists on whether a patient should eat on Yom Kippur, or if Shabbos desecration is necessary to save a life, we must follow the most competent and/or majority of expert physicians.
On the question of vaccinating children against the major vaccine-preventable illnesses, both the most competent and the majority of experts hold the same view. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, all 50 State Departments of Health in the U.S., the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, the American College of Physicians, plus every other major professional infection control organization in the world are unanimous in their opinion. “Leis man depalig.” No expert organization disagrees.
The evidence is overwhelming that vaccination is the only way to control these preventable fatal diseases. B’chasdei Hashem (due to G-d's kindness, ed.) no one dies anymore of smallpox; polio is almost wiped out. Why? Solely because of very successful vaccination programs. Rachmana liztlan (May G-d have mercy on us, ed.), why should anyone in 5779 die from measles?
Imagine if parents were to insist their child come to school armed with a revolver. Would even the most ardent gun rights activist defend them? Of course not. So why are we letting children come to our shuls, schools, and camps spreading serious potentially life-threatening illness that could have been prevented by vaccination?
We are living in very scary times, replete with anti-Semitism, chillul Hashem, and fatal contagious illnesses. I feel compelled to publicly speak out (again) against “vaccination hesitancy, and the grossly inaccurate halakhic and medical information being publicized by well-meaning but totally ignorant orthodox Jewish anti-vaxxers. It’s a matter of pikuach nefesh.
Notes:
(1) Pikuach nefesh: The principle in Jewish law that the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious consideration. When the life of a specific person is in danger, almost any mitzvah lo ta'aseh (command to not do an action) of the Torah becomes inapplicable.
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt is Director, Halachah & Medicine Commission, Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim
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