Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Howard Zucker: The Anti- Anti-Vaxxer

As measles outbreaks mainly in New York’s Haredi communities raged, Dr. Howard Zucker, the state’s health commissioner, met with Orthodox rabbis, visited religious summer camps and lobbied the legislature to eliminate the religious exemption for vaccination. Zucker, 60, who completed medical school at 22 and is also a lawyer qualified to argue before the Supreme Court, has been New York’s commissioner since 2014, after serving as second-in-command at the World Health Organization.

With more than 1,000 cases in New York alone, Zucker’s efforts helped the U.S. maintain its measles-elimination status, meaning that the country can say officially that there is not continuous spread of the disease, only outbreaks. His department did its best to walk a fine line: Stop measles in the Haredi community without playing into the community’s deep-set fears of government intervention. “I see this as part of a larger war against science-based reality,” Zucker told The New Yorker. “We need to study vaccine hesitancy as a disease.”

Howard Zucker

Howard Zucker

Breakfast Oatmeal, a bagel and orange juice.

What is the last thing you listened to on your phone? An audiobook — “The Body,” by Bill Bryson.

Earliest Jewish memory: Reading the Four Questions at Passover. Because I was the youngest member of my generation in my family, I had this role for many years.

Heroes: My mother and father. My father died in 2019, at the age of 99 years and seven months. My mother continues to inspire me, and I am thankful for the joy that she brings my children.

2019 memory: The birth of my daughter, Sadie.

What is your favorite thing about being Jewish? Carrying on a historical tradition that dates back thousands of years. The food is excellent, too.

What app can you not live without? Whatever app will play Baby Shark.

Weekend ritual: Visiting my mom, so she can be with their grandchildren — and they with her — as they grow.

Read some of the Forward’s 2019 measles coverage:

Why Do Some Ultra-Orthodox Jews Defy Their Rebbes And Refuse Measles Vaccines?

Hasidic Measles Emergency In New York Suburb Blindsides Latino Domestic Workers

We Read The Guide Fueling Ultra-Orthodox Fears Of Pig Blood In Measles Vaccines

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.