New York City Health Department Threatens Yeshivas Over Unvaccinated Students
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — The New York City Department of Health has threatened to fine or even close yeshivas in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn if students who are not vaccinated against measles are allowed to attend classes.
The crack-down comes more than a week before the Passover holiday, when large and extended Orthodox families gather and when synagogues are more full than usual.
There have been 285 reported cases of measles in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community since October, 246 of which are children, CBS New York reported, citing the health department.
CBS reported that the “vast majority” of children in the largely haredi Orthodox community of Williamsburg are vaccinated, but that it continues to spread due to how tightknit the community is. The community’s rabbis have called on the haredi public to get vaccinated, according to the report.
The health department in December ordered yeshivas and day care centers in specific Brooklyn zip codes, populated largely with haredi Orthodox, to exclude all non-vaccinated students until the end of the current measles outbreak. A Williamsburg yeshiva that fell out of compliance in January is connected to more than 40 measles cases, ABC7 New York reported.
On Friday, a New York state judge lifted the state of emergency imposed by Rockland County that would have barred minors not vaccinated against the measles from public places.
The Brooklyn outbreak has been tied to an unvaccinated child who contracted the disease during a trip to Israel, the Washington Post reported.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
