Orthodox groups, Brooklyn rabbis endorse coronavirus vaccines

December 30, 2020 Raanan Geberer

Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Congregation B’nai Avraham, Brooklyn Heights. Eagle file photo

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As the two coronavirus vaccines are being distributed around the country, the two major Orthodox Jewish religious organizations have put out a statement urging their members to take the vaccines. In addition, some Brooklyn Orthodox rabbis have responded positively to it.

The statement, put out in mid-December by the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America, says that “the consensus of our major poskim (rabbis who make decisions based on Halacha, or traditional religious law) is to encourage us to use vaccinations to protect ourselves and others from disease.”

The statement also says that “we strongly encourage all those eligible to access the COVID-19 vaccination to do so. We hope and pray that such steps will help bring to an end the tragic toll that the pandemic has taken on our community and beyond.” It adds that strategies such as social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing masks “must continue to be followed until public health recommendations advise otherwise.”

Several Brooklyn Orthodox rabbis contacted by this newspaper agreed with the statement and the recommendation.

“The most important thing in Judaism is protecting human life, and it’s very important to protect one’s health,” said Rabbi Aaron Raskin, spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Avraham in Brooklyn Heights, who enthusiastically endorsed the statement. “The rebbe [the late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Schneeerson] was very much into vaccines,” added Raskin, who is a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi.

Rabbi Mordecai Sebrow, who also endorsed the statement, said, “Everybody needs a mask to come into our synagogue and to sit 6 feet apart.” He added that the synagogue has quite a few elderly members who are at risk of catching coronavirus, which is why such measures are extremely important.

Rabbi Shimon Hecht of the Park Slope synagogue, while not wishing to comment further, said, “They (the OU and the RCA) issued it, and people need to follow it.”

Pro-vaccine sentiments in the Orthodox community are echoed across the country. In Florida, Rabbi Asher Weiss was quoted by the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel as saying, “Every new medicine or medical procedure might have long-term effects, but we always try to strike the right balance between what is needed now and what might, theoretically, happen in the future.

“People are dying, people are suffering, and we could alleviate this pain, and diminish the suffering and save many people. This is a safe vaccine as far as we could know,” he is quoted as saying.

Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt, who is both an assistant rabbi at Young Israel of Woodmere (Long Island) and chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau on Long Island, told the Times of Israel that “The majority have [said], ‘How do I get on the list?’ A significant minority have reasonable, legitimate concerns about the vaccine.

“Then you have a very small but vocal group that will not take the vaccine, no matter what. There’s no way to convince them. I can’t convince them and I hope God protects them.”

Glatt said that this feeling is rooted a mistrust in government that is the result of hundreds of years of persecution of Jews in Europe, but he added that it is misplaced in the United States.

The position of the OU and the statements of these rabbis contradict the stereotype, often perpetuated by the media, that all Orthodox Jews resent having to follow coronavirus-related precautions. In reality, this is only true for members of certain Hasidic sects, and certainly not all of them, as well as a loud minority. Their militant stance is often a product of their resentment against what they perceive to be the state singling them out while ignoring violations by others.

At the same time as the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America issued their statements, senior rabbis in Israel also urged their congregants to accept the vaccine, saying that “according to all acceptable medical parameters, it has been proven that the vaccines are safe.”