Hundreds of haredim attend anti-vaccine symposium in Monsey

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263231

Jews are being persecuted as disease carriers amid the outbreak of measles, a New York haredi Orthodox rabbi said at a symposium with leaders of the anti-vaccination movement attended by hundreds of haredim.

“We Hasidim have been chosen as the target,” said Rabbi Hillel Handler, a Holocaust survivor from Monsey, a Rockland County town with a large haredi population, according to The New York Times. “The campaign against us has been successful.”

Top Anti-Vaxxer Says He Learned All He Needs to Know From Being a Producer on ‘Dr. Phil’ and ‘The Doctors’

the daily beast

Last month, Del Bigtree stood behind a podium at a Texas rally, his flowing gray hair blowing in the wind, to talk about the supposed perils of government-mandated vaccines—a speech he has given all over the country.

This time, he had a prop: Near the end of his speech, he affixed a yellow Star of David to his coat. It was a symbol, he said, of solidarity with New York’s Orthodox Jewish community, which is in the throes of a measles outbreak.

Bigtree is one of the most visible members of the growing anti-vaxxer movement. He produced the headline-grabbing film Vaxxed, and his nonprofit raked in more than a million bucks in 2017. He has 13,000 Twitter followers and 114,000 likes on the Facebook page for his streamed show.

What he doesn’t have is a medical degree or scientific training, though he does say he read a lot of medical material while working as a producer on the TV talk show The Doctors.

Andrew Wakefield, others hold anti-vaccine rally amid raging measles outbreaks

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/andrew-wakefield-others-hold-anti-vaccine-rally-amid-raging-measles-outbreaks/

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Andrew Wakefield, Del Bigtree, and other prominent anti-vaccine advocates unleashed fear and toxic misinformation last night at a well-attended symposium in New York’s Rockland County. The area is currently grappling with one of the largest and longest-standing measles outbreaks in the country, mainly in its tight-knit, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cake-coffee-and-misinformation-inside-an-anti-vaxxer-meeting

Rocking babies and munching on cake, hundreds of people—many of them members of New York’s Orthodox Jewish community—gathered late Monday night at an anti-vaxxers rally in the Atrium, a ballroom in Monsey, about an hour north of New York City.

The event, advertised on WhatsApp and robocalls as a “Vaccines Symposium” and “a night of science, discussion, and truth,” featured mainly secular speakers, including anti-vax YouTuber Del Bigtree, “holistic pediatrician” Lawrence Palevsky, and Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced gastroenterologist and author of a now-retracted 1998 study linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism.

“Your news anchors and the media outside this building just want to talk about measles,” Bigtree told the rapt crowd. “I want to talk about autism. I want to talk about the greatest epidemic of our lifetime.” The audience burst into applause.

Measles is galloping through New York’s Orthodox community at a rate not seen in years, with nearly 500 cases reported so far. The outbreak has led to yeshiva closures and spread fear among parents of infants who are too young to be immunized and are at risk of infection.

Although study after study has shown childhood vaccinations to be safe and effective, there are still parents who refuse to get the shots for their kids.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/nyregion/measles-vaccine-orthodox-jews.html
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2019/05/14/measles-rockland-speaks-out-against-anti-vaccine-forum-monsey/3664266002/

Rabbi Asher Weiss: Jewish law obligates vaccination

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263137

Rabbi Asher Weiss, one of the leading halakhik authorities of the generation, participated in the biennial convention of the Conference of European Rabbis in Antwerp, Belgium this week.

Rabbi Weiss addressed many medical issues and presented how Jewish law views the many technological developments made in medicine and genetics.

In his remarks, Rabbi Weiss spoke clearly and decisively on the phenomenon of people choosing not to receive vaccinations or to vaccinate their children. The rabbi emphasized that this is a severe halakhic prohibition and that according to all rules of halakha (Jewish Law), a parent must ensure that his children are vaccinated.

"It's a halakhic obligation to vaccinate our children," Rabbi Weiss said.

Sorry, Rashida Tlaib: Israel was not a consolation prize for Jews

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23870

Recent assertions made by Rep. Rashida Tlaib regarding the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel have no foundation in the historical record.

In this imagined version of history, after the Holocaust, the Jews were awarded a consolation prize — the establishment of Israel — at the expense of those already living there.

Asserting that Israel’s creation was a direct response to the Holocaust overlooks the ancient and ceaseless connection of the Jewish people to Israel, as well as the modern Zionist enterprise that returned an exiled and oppressed people to their ancestral home. It also ignores the existence of a vibrant pre-World War II Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine, whose population was severely circumscribed because of the virulent opposition by local Arabs to the very idea of Jews returning to the Land of Israel.

Throughout Europe following the Nazi rise to power, a great many Zionists were deeply frustrated by the quotas set for aliyah by the British, and they later became victims of the Holocaust, having never had the opportunity to realize their dreams of reaching the Land of Israel. It is impossible to even begin to divine what their contribution could have been to Israel, the Jewish people and to the world.

Fox 2 Vaccine Debate | Let it Rip | April 11, 2019

MK to Rashida Tlaib: Palestinians gave Jews nothing but death

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263039

An Israeli lawmaker blasted Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Sunday, over the freshman Democrat’s remarks regarding Palestinian Arab treatment of Jews following the Holocaust.

Newly-minted Likud MK Michal Shir responded to Tlaib’s claim that Palestinian Arabs had “provided” a “safe haven” for Jews after the Holocaust, saying the congresswoman should “open up a” book and study the history of the Middle East.

“I suggest Congresswoman Tlaib open up a history book once in a while,” said MK Shir. “The Arabs never provided the Jews with anything after the Holocaust besides more war and death. The Jews who survived the worst of it and immigrated to Israel to join their brothers and sisters in the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel were forced to deal with terrorists, and the continued and repeated refusal of the Arabs to live in peace and coexistence, leaving [the Jews] with no choice but to defend themselves.”

“The Arabs refused to recognize the right of the Jews to this state, and the Palestinians certainly aren’t willing to recognize it today. Yet in the State of Israel today, there are some 1.8 million Muslims, who live in the safest, most democratic state in the Middle East, which offers full equality for Muslims and Jews, men and women. The state defends its Muslims citizens from ISIS, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, which are just waiting for the opportunity to strike. I think Ms. Tlaib should thank the IDF.”

US Jewish leaders concerned over Tlaib's remarks

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263164

Arthur Stark, Chairman and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, on Tuesday expressed concerns over remarks by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Israel and the Holocaust.

Tlaib, one of two Muslim women who were recently elected to Congress, came under fire after she claimed in an interview that Palestinian Arabs living in the British Mandate prior to the establishment of the State of Israel “provided” a safe haven to Jews after the Holocaust.

“We are once again highly concerned by remarks made by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, in which she engaged in historical revisionism and distortion,” Stark and Hoenlein said in a statement.

“Rep. Tlaib stated that, ‘There's always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people's passports. I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time, and I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right, and it was forced on them.’”

“As tens of thousands of Jews in Germany sought refuge from the infamous Nuremberg Laws and Nazi persecutions, including after the November 9th, 1938, Kristallnacht pogroms, Arab militias and mobs in Mandatory Palestine were attacking Jewish settlements and farms and killing Jewish residents,” the Jewish leaders noted.

“The 1939 White Paper, which limited Jewish immigration to Palestine at the very moment when escape from Europe became an existential priority, was instituted to placate the Mandate’s Arab population, and led to the trapping of millions of Jews in Hitler’s Europe. Furthermore, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a key leader of the Arab population in Palestine, supported and collaborated with Hitler and assisted in recruiting Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen-SS. The Arabs in Palestine during the Holocaust did not provide a safe haven for Jews, in fact they sided with the Axis powers. According to many experts, they expecting that the eventual arrival of the Nazis and their allies would eliminate the Jewish presence.”

“The authenticity of history is vital, not only in ensuring a proper understanding of the past, as it provides guidance to the future,” concluded Stark and Hoenlein.

A Smackdown in the Kennedy Clan Summons Up the History of Presidents and Vaccines

Family quarrels are usually private things—unless of course, the family is famous.

A public spat among boldface names broke out on May 8, when three members of the Kennedy clan published a piece on Politico declaring that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—son of Bobby Kennedy—has been “tragically wrong” in his years-long crusade against vaccines, a crusade that seems especially irresponsible now as the country suffers through its worst measles outbreak since 1994. Kennedy has become a hero of the anti-vax crowd with his persistent claims that vaccines contain deadly ingredients, particularly a mercury-based preservative known as thimerosal, and that they are linked to autism.

He is wrong on both scores. No vaccines except some formulations of the flu vaccine contain thimerosal, and the type of mercury it uses is ethylmercury, which is cleared from the body quickly and harmlessly. And vaccines do not cause—and are not even associated with—autism. Full stop.

VULNERABLE REPUBLICANS SHOW SIGNS OF BREAKING WITH DONALD TRUMP ON CHINA TARIFFS

newsweek

Last week, negotiations between Washington and Beijing broke down. Trump added another $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, and China responded on Monday by leveraging an extra $60 billion in tariffs on U.S. imports. Since then, markets have fallen (though they’re beginning to rebound), and some congressional Republicans have voiced concern with the route the president has taken.

Republicans who preside over districts and states with lots of farmers are particularly worried about the impact the trade wars may have on their re-election campaigns.

YAAKOV KRAMER WAS ARRESTED FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING A 14-YEAR-OLD, AND IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED

Jewish community watch

From a Facebook post by Shana Aaronson, COO of JCW.

Last week, the spokesperson for Jerusalem police announced the arrest of a 22-year-old man from Bet Shemesh, accused of numerous counts of sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy. 

Last week, the spokesperson for Jerusalem police announced the arrest of a 22-year-old man from Bet Shemesh, accused of numerous counts of sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy. 

This would be terrible news on its own, but it is made 100 x worse by the multitude of details which will likely never be acknowledged by the police or the community.

This 22-year-old man is known by many in Ramat Bet Shemesh because about 5 years ago, he was arrested for sexually abusing a number of little boys in Ramat Bet Shemesh A. He served time as a juvenile, and was released back into the community of Bet Shemesh. 

Shortly after he was released, I started getting The Phone Calls. Numerous community members calling to share that he’s hanging out with kids, a lot, and they are very concerned. 

I encouraged them strongly to warn the parents. But, you know, it’s awkward. No one ever wants to be the killjoy calling up a neighbor to share the lashon hara that the kindly young man who’s taken their kid under his wing is a convicted child molester. 

Then the next wave of phone calls started. He’s volunteering at local organizations and using his status there to pick up kids. 

And then, bizarrely, he called me. He wanted to volunteer for JCW. He said he loves working with kids, so I asked him for references. He described the vulnerable children in his neighborhood who he has taken under his wing. He asked that JCW let him mentor children who had been sexually abused who were going through a hard time.

And so my next call was to the police. I called. I called again. I went in and filed a report. I gave them every detail I could. They said they would look into it. They did not.

The calls from the community continued. 

He’s working in Jerusalem, he keeps picking up really young kids and taking them out alone and giving them presents. 

I told all the callers to go to the police. They were too uncomfortable to do so. What if anyone finds out it’s them who called? So awkward.

So I went back to the police. And I went back to the police again.

And they closed the case because all I could give them was third-hand information.

And the phone calls from the community continued.“He’s taking kids out alone during Friday night davening”. “The rabbi says we should let him because he’s an orphan and we feel sorry for him” (He is. But I am not sure why that matters here.) “He is always picking up kids and taking them out alone on little trips” “He buys certain kids presents.” “I’ve seen him alone with kids, the same kids every time. It’s really bad” “He hangs out with kids whose parents are really busy”.

I asked them to please tell the kids parents. I begged them to go to the police to report it.

But it’s awkward. 

No one wants to be the killjoy.

And so now, Yaakov Kramer has been arrested and accused of repeatedly molesting and sodomizing a 14-year-old, who, the police describe, he would take out alone on little trips. The police also “suspect he may have done the same to numerous other children” that he was spending time alone with.

It’s been about 2 years now that I started getting countless calls about Kramer, and reporting him to the police. In all that time it seems a community’s worth of people has been watching while a child molester strategically groom and pray on his victims.

But after all, nobody likes to be a killjoy.

**I initially wrote this last week and held off posting it because I was very angry and I try not to post when I’m angry. But yesterday I was informed that it seems the police have two additional victims who have come forward, and then yesterday evening I got two calls about another young alleged predator who is likewise being protected in Bet Shemesh. Maybe the situation calls for a little more anger.