Measles Outbreak Grows In Orthodox Communities As Leaders Urge Vaccination
Image by iStockphoto
As a measles outbreak spreads throughout Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey, some of the most influential institutions in the Jewish world are urging community members to vaccinate their children if they have not already done so.
The majority-Jewish town of Lakewood, New Jersey has 11 confirmed cases, Yeshiva World News reported Wednesday. It added that a previously-tracked outbreak in New York’s Rockland County, home to several ultra-Orthodox enclaves, has spread to 68 cases, making it the largest measles outbreak in New York state in decades.
Beth Medresh Govoha in Lakewood, one of the largest yeshivas in the world, is urging members to get vaccinated against the measles, after an infected person entered one of its buildings on Nov. 6.
The Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America “strongly urge all parents to vaccinate their healthy children on the timetable recommended by their pediatrician,” the groups said in a joint statement.
Several other leading Haredi rabbis have helped lead vaccination campaigns, while some yeshivas in New York and Chicago announced that they will no longer accept students who have not been immunized.
Lakewood has at least 11 confirmed cases of measles, but The Yeshiva World reports that the number might be higher. The publication also found that one family has six members who show symptoms, but the mother won’t visit a doctor, concerned that he or she will be “injecting poison into her children.”
According to the Rockland/Westchester Journal News, Rockland County medical officials say the outbreak there was started by people who returned from trips to Israel, where there is a large outbreak. Health authorities in the United States and Israel have said that Orthodox Jewish communities often have lower rates of vaccination than the general public.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
