City Closes Two More Brooklyn Orthodox Schools Amid Measles Outbreak

Yeshiva in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Image by Getty Images

By Josh Nathan-Kazis April 30, 2019

New York City health officials shuttered two more Orthodox Jewish schools in Brooklyn on Monday for failing to comply with an order that bans students who can’t prove they have received a measles vaccine, bringing the total number of schools closed to seven, New York 1 reported.

Health officials are taking a hard line as the measles outbreak ravaging Williamsburg, Brooklyn continues to spread. According to city officials, there have been 423 cases in the latest outbreak, 348 of them in the heavily-Jewish neighborhood of Williamsburg.

“Schools that continue to disregard our direction during the outbreak will be closed down until they can prove to the Health Department that they will comply,” Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot said in a statement. “The reality is, the longer it takes schools and individuals to comply with our Order, the longer this outbreak will continue.”

The two newly-closed schools, Tiferes Bnos and a yeshiva, Talmud Torah D’Nitra, will not be allowed to reopen until the city approves a corrective action plan, according to health officials.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

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