More on the "Churban"

https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-575/2019/08/21/

Unvaccinated Children: Rabbi Michoel Green Responds

Some readers misunderstood my point two weeks ago, so let me explain: I’m not an “anti-vaxxer.” Personally, I encourage vaccinations whenever they are medically advised. My op-ed was not an attack on vaccines, but rather a rejection of the notion that an unvaccinated child may be banned from school.

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Bodily autonomy is sacrosanct. We cannot coerce vaccination. Likewise, we cannot deprive a child of an education. Our communities are obligated to educate all children without exception. Statistical “public health risk” doesn’t exempt us from this two-millennia-old requirement. Only actual incapacitating illness does.

A child’s lack of immunity to infectious disease does not excuse us from educating him. “Herd immunity” is not a Jewish value and has zero basis in halacha.

To a Torah teacher and community leader, it should be irrelevant whether parents have valid reasons for not vaccinating. A child cannot be punished for his parents’ noncompliance with the state’s vaccine schedule. And yet, shockingly, rabbinic leadership stands by idly while thousands of Jewish children are being wrongly deprived of a Torah education.

A community that doesn’t educate all its children is guilty of excommunication (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 245:7), and the onus of this communal obligation lies squarely on its rabbis. Yet, not only have rabbis neglected these children; some have abused their authority by attempting to strong-arm parents into compliance. A rabbi has no business giving medical advice to anyone unless he is a medical doctor.

Halacha doesn’t permit us to quarantine or shun healthy children. Jewish schools, therefore, violated halacha by ousting healthy children. As community leaders, rabbis are obligated to organize their communities to open new schools that will accommodate allJewish children.

The Holy Temple was destroyed because children were barred from learning Torah for no valid reason (Shabbos 119b). History is repeating itself in New York. Let’s fix this churban now.

Rabbi Michoel Green