UOJ - "Don't be taken in. Never explain. Never retract. Get it done and let them howl!"

One of my all-time favorites from a good friend - The UOJ Classics!

Dear UOJ:

"......With reference to your recent correspondent: beware the well-meaning critic who "only " wants you to curb your language. Language is the key to humanity itself, so show me a censor and I'll show you a prison guard -- however well-intentioned. I do not advocate -- I do not practice -- indiscriminate brutality in language any more than in deed. In fact, I see plenty of writing on blogs that makes me worry for the future of civilized discourse. But NOT because of the language involved, nor because it attacks a sacred cow here, an overrated human icon there. Talk radio is infinitely worse than blogs; have the rabbis banned THAT? Au contraire: brutality aimed at "liberals" is still groovy.

Avigdor Miller could be as coarse in scorning his opponents as anything I've read on Jewish newsgroups -- has anyone lately pointed this out? There's the Jewish Observer, which indulged personal attacks against the author of Holy Days (who deserved better) and lately ran an obscene rant that condemned as sinners all people who write unpleasant truths about powerful rabbis, a piece so destructive of logic and decency that the author apparently never noticed the irony of condemning slander while committing it himself -- wholesale. Has this been condemned?

We are all fallible, and in controversy we inevitably irritate or disappoint at least some of our readers. Sometimes with reason. But it is a great mistake to be guided by a wish not to offend. Let the "gentle" critic who "only" wants you to tone down your rhetoric, or your graphic allusions, or your offensive imagery, or your subject matter, or your this or your that, assert in no uncertain terms -- if he dares -- that something he objects to in your work is, in fact, wrong, bad, untrue. If he can make that claim, and convince you of its correctness, well and good.

Otherwise: he is a temptation to be politely but firmly set aside. The man who wants to tell the truth but not offend the respectable is like someone who wants to scale a wall without using his hands. You can't do it. You want to do serious work -- well, some people aren't going to like it. They tell you they like your buildings but find the shadows they cast a little excessive? "Sorry, lady, but the shadow comes with the building. I'm sure you can find a spot without either one, if that's your choice." You can't write anything without tripping over somebody's sensitivities. So why worry about it?

Once you're offending -- OFFEND.

I don't mean blowharding. But OFFEND. If you're not offending someone, you're saying nothing... which of course is why so many rabbis, idolized by the "civil" crowd, are rising through the ranks by repeating the same sermons again and again, telling us nothing -- but giving no offense.

As for the claim -- the civilians are never without it -- that the same goals can be accomplished with different language -- well, if that's really so, why haven't they done it? I say the objection to the tools used is only valid true when the tools are truly the wrong ones... in which case, you won't be getting any results. Otherwise the methods are inseparable from the goals. Which is why Mozart had to use so many notes (in spite of fashion), Beethoven had to use bold dissonances, Ibsen had to refer to adultery and venereal disease. Even Lenny Bruce was told once that he could be a great comic without the "filth" (whatever that meant)... have you ever tried paraphrasing one of his great routines on sexual frailties -- minus the four-letter words? Having tried it once, would you ever want to again?

I do not believe the straitjacketing of language in Orthodox communities is a coincidence. I think it is a matter of deliberate strategy.

As Orwell pointed out, curbing language curbs thought: if there is no vocabulary to explain why Big Brother is evil, then the idea itself becomes impossible to hold. In our communities things are much the same. "Elchanan Wasserman was a religious tyrant who sacrificed thousands of people to his rigid piety" is no easier for the average Orthodox Jew to articulate than "Big Brother is ungood" would have been in Oceania. Breaking this barrier is not incidental to the kind of cause you're engaged in -- on the contrary, it is a fundamental part of it.

The Agudah crowd instinctively knows that the moment people can say "Reb Moshe sometimes misrepresented Talmudic sources to advance a personal ideology" or "Avigdor Miller emotionally manipulated ba'alei t'shuvah," etc., etc., they will begin to think for themselves and will never again be under Agudah's control. So, of course, they condemn such "language" as coarseness, as gossip, as slander, as slights to sages, whatever... rather than addressing themselves to the ONLY thing that matters, the truth or falsity of the statements in question.

Isn't it a commonplace that we can never learn from anyone's greatness until we can separate it from his frailties? Is Abraham Lincoln less inspiring a figure when we know about the messes in his personal life and his rough-and-tumble political background? Human beings emulate other human beings -- if you want to know what happens when people, instead of learning from fallible models, become the apes of God, look at R. Elchanan. I think he would have been a greater man if he had seen HIS heroes as human. He didn't: and just look at the results.

I may misquote him here, but Thomas Hardy, frequently under attack for his subject matter in his lifetime -- now accepted without question as one of the great novelists and poets of the early modern period -- had the right idea when he wrote in his journal: "Never explain. Never retract. Get it done and let them howl." It's taken me, a shy, diffident type, a long time to learn this, but no approach but Hardy's EVER works.

The moment you start trying to appease one critic, another pipes up; take something back, everything starts to collapse; cast around for consensus -- none will appear. If you want to be loved, don't write, or at least don't write honestly; there were vastly more popular writers than Hardy back in the 1890s. They wrote what the public liked and turned out bestsellers. Not one of them is ever mentioned today.

Don't be fooled by the number of hits on your blog -- most are curiosity seekers; the really popular speakers are the Frands, the Krohns, the Salomons, the Kotlers, etc., who never tell their audiences a word they don't want to hear. Our community will embalm them, and 75 years from now they will be exactly what they are now -- just as they are already the inarticulate corpses they will be then.

If a few words from your blogs survive, you at least will have a chance to live forever... not because of your "language," nor in spite of it, but because you wrote a few words that were true, right, clear, pure and necessary . . . and good Lord, what else can any of us hope for? It's a rare enough accomplishment as it is, while using every sensibility God gave us and every word he lent us for the purpose. Start censoring yourself, even for "good" reasons, and you don't have a chance.

Don't be taken in. Never explain. Never retract. Get it done and let them howl."

Rabbinic Infallibility

The UOJ Archives: May 24, 2010

"Today, unfortunately, the majority of Jews have abandoned the Torah as their primary guide in life, rather than finding meaning and inspiration in its profound philosophical, psychological and moral lessons. Many of them will not turn to Judaism unless they find the system of studying its primary texts sound and responsive to reality".

There has been much discussion in the Orthodox Jewish world recently about the question of rabbinic authority. Yeshiva University published a book on the subject, the journal Tradition devoted an issue to the topic and there have been numerous postings in "Mail Jewish", an e-mail forum on the Internet, regarding various facets of the topic.

This paper is written to address one important aspect of the topic only - the opinion that holds Talmudic sages to have been infallible and that all their statements, including those of a factual type, whether they relate to history, geography, medicine, astronomy, biology, etc., to be absolutely true.

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that such an opinion is logically untenable and a misunderstanding of the sources.

If the above opinion meant that in many areas the sages had exceedingly great insight surpassing others of their time, it would be fine. If it meant that in certain cases the sages had a tradition originating from a Divinely-inspired source, that would be a different matter. If it meant that Halacha, even in those instances when apparently based upon factual insights of the sages, remains binding regardless of present-day scientific opinion, until a future Sanhedrin exercises its duly-authorized power to reevaluate matters, it would be correct. However, some present-day yeshiva authorities mean actual infallibility and absolute truth in all Talmudic statements.

This position cannot be accepted. Its negative effects cannot be overstated.

A clarification of this matter is called for not only to improve the quality of our own Torah study, but also to remove a stumbling block from the path of many who might thus find their way to Orthodox Judaism. It is not only the opinion in and of itself, but its consequences that are particularly injurious, as will be briefly touched upon further in this paper....

 Read the entire essay click the link:
http://www.judaicseminar.org/general/infallibility.htm

"Let us ignore the Agudah's ritual invocations of Daat Torah. Let us be wary of separatist groups, which are led by their philosophy to engage, albeit unwittingly, in highly selective forms of Ahavat Yisroel....

RABBI ISAAC HUTNER'S "DAAT TORAH PERSPECTIVE" ON THE HOLOCAUST: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

 

 Rabbi Hutner sitting - 2nd from right.

... Further, Professor Kaplan described “the whole notion of Daat Torah [as] to close and suppress discussion [and thus enable] one person or group to impose, ex cathedra a personal, particular viewpoint on all persons or groups -- and no questions asked!” [All footnotes omitted.]⁴
 
In his longer 1992 essay, Professor Kaplan again cited Rabbi Weinberger's statement in The Jewish Observer about Daat Torah “bordering . . . on the periphery of prophecy,” describing Rabbi Weinberger's writing as “perhaps the clearest exposition of Daas Torah . . ..” ⁵ Developing the various fundamental flaws (in his mind) relating to “Daat Torah” that he first publicized in Tradition and attempting but (again from his perspective) failing to find traditional “sources” for the concept, Professor Kaplan concluded -- citing Professor Ephraim Urbach -- that “Daat Torah ideology has never been based upon authoritative halakhic sources . . ..” 

 "Let us ignore the Agudah's ritual invocations of  Daat Torah. Let us be wary of separatist groups, which are led by  their philosophy to engage, albeit unwittingly, in highly selective forms of Ahavat Yisroel. Instead, let us continue in our classic tradition of working from within for the advance of our old but ever new goal of Klal Yisroel, the land of Israel, for the people of Israel, in accordance with the Torah of Israel"

 "But one thing is certain: the fact that the philosophy of Agudat Israel can, for whatever reason, result in such distortions should serve to prevent Orthodox Jews who are committed to the principles of religious Zionism from being seduced by the siren song of Agudah, to wit: that their viewpoint and only theirs represent the view of Daat Torah. And here we come to the final and perhaps most fundamental point. On its cover page The Jewish Observer described Rabbi Hutner's discourse as offering "a Daas Torah perspective" on the Holocaust. I believe that Orthodox Jews who are not adherents of Agudat Israel and its philosophy should be wary of the entire concept of Daat Torah and its all too casual use, both in the pages of The Jewish Observer and on the part of Agudah spokesmen in general...."

A VERY IMPORTANT READ: 
http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2018/No.%203/Rabbi%20Isaac%20Hutner's.pdf

 

Once and Again, the Agudath Israel of America Endangers Your Children, At The Risk of Tarnishing their Brand!

“What about the people who clean and sweep in the school?” argued Kamenetzky. “They are mostly Mexican and are unvaccinated. If there was a problem, the children would already have gotten sick.” “I see vaccinations as the problem. It’s a hoax. Even the Salk vaccine [against polio] is a hoax. It is just big business.”

Well-known Jewish legal expert Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky and his wife, Temi, are often cited for their anti-immunization stance, which was expressed in a 2014 Baltimore Jewish Times article: “Vaccines are a hoax. It is just big business,” Rabbi Kamenetsky was quoted as saying. 

The rabbi’s status means his views carry weight beyond his own immediate circle. He is also a member of Agudath Israel of America’s Council of Torah Sages, which, along with the Haredi advocacy organization in general, “will not be taking a position on vaccinations or the measles outbreak,” says spokeswoman Leah Zagelbaum. 

AGUDATH ISRAEL FALLS ON ITS FACE AGAIN BY WHITEWASHING THIS MAN'S DANGEROUS AND IGNORANT OPINIONS

ברוך שלא עשני גוי

Screams are heard and as people begin to run towards the potential bargains, ripping signs and destroying displays in their wake.

Some are seen stumbling and falling while one woman appears to be trapped as shoppers barge past her.

Store staff are heard shouting as they attempt to restore order, but the crowds are out of control.

Meanwhile, another video shows crowds a frantically entering a Game store in South Africa, which has been captioned: "It's the end of the world." 

People fall and barriers collapse as the rush of screaming people enter the shop.

At one point, a security guard is seen holding a gun as people enter the shop.

Elsewhere crushing crowds of people shopped during Black Friday at Macy's flagship store on 34th Street in New York.

Aisles were completely packed as hundreds of people squeezed into the store to pick up discounted items.


MORE MADNESS - VIDEOS:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/black-friday-chaos-frantic-shoppers-13630972

Finally, for some Haredi Jews, not immunizing their children is a reflection of their ultimate trust in God. “If we believe we are protected by the One above, we really have nothing to worry about,” the Lakewood mother tells Haaretz. “We try to keep restrengthening our absolute belief that nothing in the world can harm us unless it is the will of God.”

War Breaks Out in New York’s ultra-Orthodox Community Over Measles Outbreak 

 

Unique aspects of Haredi culture have led to an anti-vaxxer movement developing in the community. As senior rabbis issue contradictory rulings, medical experts are using informal gatherings to try to spread the word about the importance of vaccinations

File photo: An ultra-Orthodox child getting a measles shot.Daniel Bar-On

• U.S. authorities accuse Israel of measles outbreak in Haredi communities

• Everything you need to know about the measles outbreak roiling Israel

• New York City warns of measles outbreak in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community 

   

  Destructive cults

  ("Destructive cult" generally refers to groups whose members have, through deliberate action, physically injured or killed other members of their own group or other people. The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance specifically limits the use of the term to religious groups that "have caused or are liable to cause loss of life among their membership or the general public".^[72] Psychologist Michael Langone, executive director of the anti-cult group International Cultic Studies Association, defines a destructive cult as "a highly manipulative group which exploits and sometimes physically and/or psychologically damages members and recruits".^[73]
  John Gordon Clark cited totalitarian systems of governance and an emphasis on money making as characteristics of a destructive cult.^[74] In Cults and the Family the authors cite Shapiro, who defines a "destructive cultism" as a sociopathic syndrome, whose distinctive qualities include: "behavioral and personality changes, loss of personal identity, cessation of scholastic activities, estrangement from family, disinterest in society and pronounced mental control and enslavement by cult leaders".^[75]
  In the opinion of Benjamin Zablocki, a Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, destructive cults are at high risk of becoming abusive to members. He states that this is in part due to members' adulation of charismatic leaders contributing to the leaders becoming corrupted by power.^[76] According to Barrett, the most common accusation made against destructive cults is sexual abuse. According to Kranenborg, some groups are risky when they advise their members not to use regular medical care.^[77] This may extend to physical and psychological harm.^[78])
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NEW YORK – The current measles outbreak in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in the New York area is leading to threats, recriminations and lawsuits, and is also highlighting the lack of consensus among senior rabbis on the vaccination issue. 

However, it is also leading to new approaches from medical experts trying to reach those who, in the face of nearly 130 suspected cases of the highly contagious disease, remain determined not to vaccinate their children. 

There are now 113 confirmed cases of measles in ultra-Orthodox (or Haredi) communities around New York City and Lakewood, New Jersey, with another 16 suspected and under investigation by public health authorities. Two measles-infected babies have been hospitalized in intensive care units. And while it is mostly infants who have been infected, some teenagers and a handful of adults have also fallen ill.

Isolated communities could be at greater risk: in 2014 a measles outbreak hit Ohio after Amish travelers to the Philippines contracted measles and returned home to rural Knox County OhioAP

Why has the anti-vaxxer perspective taken hold in pockets of the Haredi community? The answer, say longtime observers, has to do with long-held suspicions of government agencies, including health departments, prizing cultural isolation, reliance on their own communities for things like emergency services, and placing their trust in God to protect them. 

U.S. public health authorities say the current outbreak started when Haredi families visited Israel last Sukkot and brought the illness back to their communities. An 18-month-old infant in Jerusalem’s Haredi Mea She’arim neighborhood has died and nearly 1,500 potential cases have been reported. Non-vaccination rates are high in Israeli areas with large Hasidic populations, including the city of Safed and the town of Kfar Chabad.

Haredi immunization rates have dipped in recent years as a result of anti-immunization views taking root in the community. Now, as the number of infected Haredim grows, some within the religious Jewish community are initiating new efforts to reach Haredi anti-vaxxers. 

Growing backlash

 

Tensions within the community are running high. 

A Crown Heights couple, Sholom and Esther Laine, is suing Yeshiva Oholei Torah – a Lubavitch boys’ school – for not allowing their unvaccinated son to start kindergarten. In the suit, Esther Laine says the school is infringing on her constitutionally protected religious right to claim exemption from the requirement of most schools, including Oholei Torah, that all students be immunized. Several attempts to contact the Laines were unsuccessful. 

“The battle is getting very fierce,” says a Haredi mother, speaking to Haaretz from her home in Lakewood. “People are getting threats if they question vaccinations,” says the mother of three, who asked that her name not be published for fear of being pressured or intimidated by neighbors.

A measles vaccine is seen at Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles, California February 5, 2015. Reuters

The ultra-Orthodox towns Monsey and New Square are part of Rockland County, about an hour north of New York City. There are currently 75 confirmed cases of measles and six more suspected.

In New York City, there are now 24 confirmed measles cases – all in the Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Borough Park – says Dr. Jane Zucker at the Department of Health. “This outbreak would not have occurred had the children been vaccinated,” she says.

Although measles was officially declared eradicated in the United States in 2000, this is not the first outbreak of the disease in the ultra-Orthodox community. In 2013, there was a significant uptick in measles in Williamsburg and Borough Park, with 58 cases reported. There was also another minor outbreak in New York City earlier this year, which resulted in a miscarriage, pneumonia and hospitalizations, according to The New York Daily News. 

Now there is a growing backlash: Those known to be non-vaccinators are being ostracized by fellow Haredim, say members of the community. “People frown upon neighbors who aren’t vaccinating; there is animus toward them,” says Alexander Rapaport, a Hasidic Jew who lives in Borough Park and is founder and director of Masbia, a kosher soup kitchen and food pantry. “You hear there’s someone in that building that doesn’t vaccinate, and now the whole building is having tsuris with them,” he says, using the Yiddish word for trouble. 

Ultra-vaxxers and anti-vaxxers

 

Unvaccinated measles carriers convey a significant risk to others who aren’t immunized – either because they are too young or have compromised immune systems. One person sick with measles can spread it to as many as 18 others, public health authorities warn. Children typically get two doses of the MMR vaccine: one between 12 and 15 months; and another between 4 and 6 years. A child who has gotten both shots is believed to be 97 percent protected from the disease, say health experts. Now, health department authorities are urging vaccinations for children as young as 6 months, and to hasten the second dose so as many people as possible are fully protected.

ILLUSTRATION: Orthodox Jewish men listen to a news conference outside City Hall, in New York, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. Richard Drew,AP

Rabbis beyond the New York area are now taking steps to prevent the measles from reaching their communities. Last week, the heads of the two main Orthodox rabbinical courts in Chicago issued a letter stating that “nobody has a right to endanger others by not vaccinating their children.” An unvaccinated person exposing other people to measles during an outbreak puts the non-immunized person in the category of someone who actively poses a threat to life, they wrote, using the term rodef (lethal pursuer) – which is a serious violation of Torah law. 

The rabbis urged all schools, playgroups and shuls to ban any unvaccinated child, writing, “This is nothing less than a matter of pikuach nefesh,” referring to the religious law in which preservation of human life overrides virtually all other religious considerations. 

Furthermore, prominent Israeli Haredi rabbis recently issued a strongly worded decree that those who refuse to vaccinate “are causing bloodshed,” according to the ultra-Orthodox newspaper Kikar Hashabbat. Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, head of Jerusalem’s stringent Edah HaChareidis rabbinical court, issued an order that every father “must ensure that his son and daughter are immunized immediately.” 

However, other influential Haredi rabbis view the issue differently. 

Well-known Jewish legal expert Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky and his wife, Temi, are often cited for their anti-immunization stance, which was expressed in a 2014 Baltimore Jewish Times article: “Vaccines are a hoax. It is just big business,” Rabbi Kamenetsky was quoted as saying. 

The rabbi’s status means his views carry weight beyond his own immediate circle. He is also a member of Agudath Israel of America’s Council of Torah Sages, which, along with the Haredi advocacy organization in general, “will not be taking a position on vaccinations or the measles outbreak,” says spokeswoman Leah Zagelbaum. 

 

Another member of the Council of Torah Sages, Lakewood’s Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, endorses the Lakewood Vaccine Coalition, which was created last March with the aim of advocating on behalf of those who do not want to immunize their children. The coalition’s website, in the meantime, has disappeared and its phone number is out of service. An email elicited no response. 

An anonymous group called PEACH (Parents Teaching and Advocating for our Children’s Health) has circulated an anti-immunization booklet throughout the religious community in the New York area and beyond. In it, an anonymous author claims that “hundreds of thousands of children’s lives have been ruined within hours of vaccines.” The idea that measles is a serious illness is “a fabrication,” it adds. 

There is no identifying information about PEACH in the booklet and, with no online presence or listed phone numbers, the group is untraceable. 

Changing things from the bottom up

 

This anonymous spreading of misinformation is frustrating to those who want to see Haredi children fully protected from communicable diseases. 

Blima Marcus is an oncology nurse and president of the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association. The OJNA is now trying to reach out to religious parents in a personal, informal way and has established an email address for those who want information. 

In just the first few days, “we’ve been contacted by a few people seeking reassurance or clarification on specific vaccines,” Marcus tells Haaretz. The OJNA is planning to hold living-room gatherings soon. These will involve “no physicians, no agendas, no judgment: just frum [religious] nurses coming to listen, talk, answer questions and educate,” she says, adding, “We have 30 nurses from around the states who already volunteered their time to do this in their communities.” 

Dr. Zackary Sholem Berger, an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has written in Yiddish publications about medical issues in the Orthodox community. He just held a session at a Borough Park health clinic with the goal of hearing the concerns of Haredi doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. 

“To see any sector of my community not vaccinate is horrifying,” says Berger. However, “If you wag your finger at anti-vaccine people, it doesn’t work.” Persuading them “has to come from the bottom up,” adds Berger, who has a doctorate in epidemiology. 

Anti-vaccine views have seemingly become entrenched in some parts of Haredi communities because of aspects of ultra-Orthodox culture. 

There is a general distrust of government authorities that is likely rooted in the Jewish legal prohibition against one Jew turning another into the police, say knowledgeable observers. Hasidic communities were established in Eastern Europe at a time when government authorities themselves persecuted Jews – or at the very least, turned a blind eye to those who did. Historical memory in general is prized in Haredi communities and passed down from one generation to the next, almost like cherished silver Shabbat candlesticks. 

Dangerous influence

 

There is also an insularity in Haredi communities – particularly among women, who frequently lack access to the internet – that is viewed as a negative and dangerous influence. As a result, WhatsApp and similar phone-based chat groups are popular among Haredi women, says the OJNA’s Marcus.

Participants in one WhatsApp group Marcus belongs to said they don’t trust studies because they are funded by pharmaceutical companies, she says. Furthermore, they don’t trust the Food and Drug Administration, which must approve all medications, because they believe “the FDA is in the pocket of pharmaceutical companies,” Marcus adds. 

Haredi communities are also accustomed to relying on themselves rather than the outside world for many things, notes Borough Park’s Rapaport. “They have an off-the-grid mentality, so they don’t call 911” in case of emergency, but call the Orthodox volunteer ambulance corps Hatzalah instead. And instead of calling the police, they contact the volunteer patrol Shomrim – which arrives faster anyway, he says. “It’s a mind-set which allows something like anti-vaccination to spread,” says Rapaport. 

What’s more, he adds, there is a fondness for “old world wisdom” – like when people say: My bubbie [grandmother] and aunt had measles, and they lived to be 90. 

But Marcus cautions that a lot of people talk about the past “as if it was a healthier or safer time – but 100 years ago many people didn’t live past 8 years old.” In the ultra-Orthodox world, “there’s a lot of misinformation as to how things were different in the past,” she says. 

Marcus also notes that alternative medicine is popular among the Haredi community. “There are large pockets of homeopathy followers in Hasidic Williamsburg, in Monroe and in Lakewood,” she says.

One popular Borough Park chiropractor is distributing pamphlets in his office about the dangers of vaccines. People travel from upstate Rockland County to see him, says Marcus. The chiropractor did not return several messages left for him at his home and office, but the woman answering his office phone acknowledged that they do distribute anti-immunization information. 

Finally, for some Haredi Jews, not immunizing their children is a reflection of their ultimate trust in God. “If we believe we are protected by the One above, we really have nothing to worry about,” the Lakewood mother tells Haaretz. “We try to keep restrengthening our absolute belief that nothing in the world can harm us unless it is the will of God.” 

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-war-breaks-out-in-new-york-s-ultra-orthodox-community-over-measles-outbreak-1.6675883?fbclid=IwAR2aTAVFd59s6bzULdxCjnXsnYPJE_q9-T_wHG4U1QzOmTGaRg09rGQD0IQ

The overall national rate of mental illness was about 18 percent ---- How Did They All Wind Up In New York City - 42 Broadway?

AGUDATH ISRAEL HEADQUARTERS

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. Adults Has Mental Illness or Drug Problem

 (UOJ ARCHIVES JULY 2017)

(HealthDay News) -- Nearly 1 in 5 American adults deals with a mental illness or substance abuse problem each year, a U.S. government study says.

Oregon has the highest rate, and New Jersey the lowest, according to 2012-2014 data analyzed by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Overall, almost 44 million Americans 18 or older had a diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorder in the past year, researchers said. They reviewed national surveys on drug use and health.

"The figures in SAMHSA's report remind us how important it is to take mental health as seriously as any other health condition," Kana Enomoto, SAMHSA acting deputy assistant secretary, said in an agency news release.

The overall national rate of mental illness was about 18 percent.

In Oregon, almost 23 percent of the state residents had any type of mental illness. Utah, West Virginia, Maine and Rhode Island were next, with rates above 21 percent.

In New Jersey, the mentally healthiest state, fewer than 16 percent of adults had a mental health condition, according to the report. The other lowest rates were in Illinois, North Dakota, Florida and South Dakota (all about 16.5 percent). (That's 1 in 6 Lakewood Guys... sooo if there are six thousand -- BEST guys in Lakewood (BMG)....Let's see how many people can come up with the difficult mathematical answer?)

Rates varied within states, too. For example, northwestern Oregon had a high of almost 24 percent. South Florida came in with less than 15 percent having a diagnosable mental illness in a given year.

"The presence of [any mental illness] in every state reinforces that mental illness is a major public health concern in the United States," the report noted. "Overall treatment levels remain low, and addressing the mental health of U.S. adults remains a concern for state and national public health officials."

Highlighting the percentage of people with a mental illness at state and local levels can help policymakers assess mental health needs in their communities, the researchers noted.

Examining changes over time is a key part of such assessments. The report said that rates of past-year mental illness among adults rose in California, Maine, North Carolina and Rhode Island between 2010-2012 and 2012-2014. There was no change in other states.

-- Robert Preidt


http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=205536&ecd=mnl_day_072417


 THE PROTEST IN FRONT OF THE NOVOMINSKER SHUL IN BORO PARK THIS PAST SUNDAY!

Abuse Survivors Press For Statute Bill (AGAIN)

 

In wake of stalled legislation, demonstrators call on Agudah to get behind Child Victims Act.

In a bid to turn up the pressure on Agudath Israel of America over its policies towards sexual abuse victims, activists and abuse survivors protested Sunday in front of the Novominsker shul in Borough Park, the second such protest this summer.

About 30 protesters — including at least 10 of whom said they were abused as children — spent nearly three hours demonstrating their frustration with Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, one of the leaders of Agudath. The charedi umbrella group is one of a few organizations in the Jewish community that has strongly objected to the Child Victims Act, a bill that would increase the statute of limitations for sex crimes committed against minors in New York State. Other groups opposed to the bill include the New York State Catholic Conference and the Boy Scouts of America; they argue that increasing the statute of limitations would expose them to potentially crippling legal bills.......


READ:
http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/abuse-survivors-press-for-statute-bill/

Non-immunized children are banned from attending Rockland schools that have less than an 80 percent vaccination rate, which includes 34 local private Jewish schools.

Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss on the Anti-Vaxx Insanity!

Rockland: Largest NY measles outbreak in decades reaches 68 cases

Rockland County's measles outbreak has reached 68 cases, with another 11 cases under investigation — the largest in New York state in decades — county officials said Tuesday morning.

The outbreak, which originated in Israel, has mainly affected the Orthodox Jewish community, primarily in New Square, Monsey and Spring Valley.

There are also 11 confirmed cases in Lakewood, New Jersey, and 24 in Brooklyn: four in Borough Park and 13 in Williamsburg, according to health departments in New York City and New Jersey.

The last large outbreak in the state was in 2013 with 58 cases when a teenager brought measles from London to New York City.

The New York City Health Department said all the Brooklyn cases affected children who were mostly unvaccinated or too young to be vaccinated, while Rockland health officials said the patients were adults, teens and children.

Rockland has a 94 percent vaccination rate, according to county officials.

Non-immunized children are banned from attending Rockland schools that have less than an 80 percent vaccination rate, which includes 34 local private Jewish schools.

Rockland health officials, with the assistance of state health officials, do daily checks at the schools to ensure that non-immunized children are not attending, officials said. The children will not be allowed to return until 21 days after the last known case of measles have passed.

County and state health departments, along with local physicians and health centers, administered more than 6,100 doses of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccines since the outbreak began in early October. Nearly 3,000 of those were given by the Refuah Health Center in Spring Valley.

The Refuah Health Center in Spring Valley

Refuah, which has a large Orthodox Jewish clientele and whose name is the Hebrew word for healing, has been working with the county and state health departments since the outbreak began.

The health center has been offering a daily “newborn mobile” parked outside the building for babies under the age of 6 months who are too young for their first shot, and a front-door triage where patients are checked for measles symptoms before entering the center to prevent exposure to other patients.

Symptoms, which usually appear 10-12 days after exposure but may appear as early as seven days and as late as 21 days after exposure, include a fever, rash, cough, conjunctivitis (red, watery eyes) or runny nose. People are considered infectious from four days before to four days after the appearance of the rash.

Refuah has also been providing community education and outreach to residents about measles and vaccinations.

How it started

 

The first cases of measles came from three groups of travelers: one person visiting from Israel, one person coming home from a visit to Israel and three others traveling together after a visit to Israel.

Israel is in the middle of a measles outbreak with more than 1,500 confirmed cases, according to the nation’s minister of health. One child has died there from measles.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed 142 cases of measles and 11 outbreaks in 25 states and the District of Columbia as of Oct. 6, shortly after this outbreak began. An outbreak is defined as three or more linked cases.

Other recent outbreaks include one in 2015 when a visitor to Disney theme parks in California spread measles to seven other states and two other countries. There were 147 confirmed measles cases in that outbreak.

The year before had the largest outbreak in the country in more than two decades, when there were 383 cases among the largely unvaccinated Amish community.

Outbreaks are costly. The 2013 outbreak in New York City cost nearly $400,000 and took a total of 10,054 hours of manpower, according to a report by Dr. Jennifer Rosen published in JAMA Pediatrics, a medical journal from the American Medical Association.

A measles vaccine is shown on a countertop at the Tamalpais Pediatrics clinic on Feb. 6 in Greenbrae, Calif. (Photo: Eric Risberg/The Associated Press)

 

 

What is measles?

 

• Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus that is spread by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected people.
• Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and young children, as it can lead to pneumonia, brain damage, deafness, and death. About one out of four people who get measles will be hospitalized.
• There have been hospitalizations in this outbreak, including one child in Rockland who was in the pediatric intensive care unit, according to health care officials.
• Others who are at high risk for complications include pregnant women who are not immune, as well as those who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed (when your body can't fight disease).
• Individuals are considered protected or immune to measles: if they were born before 1957; had two doses of the MMR vaccine; had a physicians or provider confirm measles; or have a lab test confirming immunity.
• The MMR vaccine is 97 percent effective after two doses. Those who are immunized but still get measles have much milder cases, according to county health officials. Typically the first MMR vaccine is given at 12 to 15 months of age and the second dose at four to six years. Vaccinations can also be given later or in the case of an outbreak, as early as six months old.
• Anyone who is unsure of their vaccination status should contact their health care provider. There are currently no MMR clinics scheduled. To receive a dose of the vaccine, contact your local health care provider.
• Residents can get more information about measles by visiting www.health.ny.gov/publications/2170.pdf and by calling the state Department of Health toll-free Measles Information Line at 888-364-4837.

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2018/11/13/rockland-largest-ny-measles-outbreak-decades-reaches-68-cases/1986550002/?fbclid=IwAR2m0GvgGo80S2M6bstfJ7zZjka0qiKoeUFzDryGpXgdRcew9D5H90V0eOI

When Was The Last Time Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzky Got Something Right? (Originally Posted March 28, 2018) (A Few Thousand Children have been sickened seriously since, and one child died) - Yet - NO RETRACTION BY THIS MEDICAL IGNORAMUS! Kaminetzky's issues of not issuing a public retraction of his idiot opinion is causing illness and death! He is either not well or is a rasha & a defacto rotzeach - You can tell him I said so!!

“What about the people who clean and sweep in the school?” argued Kamenetzky. “They are mostly Mexican and are unvaccinated. If there was a problem, the children would already have gotten sick.” “I see vaccinations as the problem. It’s a hoax. Even the Salk vaccine [against polio] is a hoax. It is just big business.”

SIGNATORIES: SHMUEL KAMINETSKY - MALKIEL KOTLER - MATTISYAHU SALOMON

R.B. reached out to Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, founder and dean of the Talmudical Academy of Philadelphia, whose wife, Temi, speaks out against vaccinating children. The rabbi wrote a letter on R.B.’s behalf, leading to her son’s principal relenting and apologizing.

When reached by phone, both Kamenetzkys confirmed their belief that vaccinations, not the diseases they prevent, are harmful.

“There is a doctor in Chicago who doesn’t vaccinate any of his patients and they have no problem at all,” said the rabbi.

 “I see vaccinations as the problem. It’s a hoax. Even the Salk vaccine [against polio] is a hoax. It is just big business.”

“What about the people who clean and sweep in the school?” argued Kamenetzky. “They are mostly Mexican and are unvaccinated. If there was a problem, the children would already have gotten sick.”

Sharon Billing, a Baltimore nurse and mother, said she once challenged Temi Kamenetzky at a lecture. “How can you advise young mothers to do this?” she asked the rebbetzin. “You’re old enough to remember whopping cough and diphtheria. As Jews, we are required to guard our health.”


Will Israel end child subsidies for anti-vaxxers?

The Israeli government is considering penalizing parents who refuse to vaccinate their children

 TEL AVIV (JTA) — Each month, the Israeli government sends a check to every Israeli family with at least one child. The more children you have, the more money you get.
 

Unless, that is, you don’t vaccinate your children.

According to a clause in the coalition agreement signed last month by the ruling Likud party and the haredi Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, Israel will not provide child allowances to families that refuse to vaccinate their children. Should the Likud-led coalition enact the clause as part of next year’s government budget, it would be a harsh penalty for so-called “anti-vaxxers.”

A 2014 State Comptroller’s report said that as of 2010 up to 10 percent of Israel’s children have “anti-vaxxer” parents.  Those parents, according to a 2011 University of Haifa study, come largely from haredi and low-income populations, as well as from Israel’s upper class. In addition, according to Arab-Israeli legal rights group Adalah, vaccination rates are low among Bedouin Israelis due to lack of access to health services.  

“There’s a phenomenon that people don’t vaccinate their kids,” said Yaakov Isaac, spokesman for Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who will set criteria for which parents will qualify for subsidies. “There are people — Bedouins, extremist haredim — who don’t trust the health system.”

Fears that vaccines are linked to autism — such connections have been debunked by the scientific research — are cited less frequently in Israel than they are in the United States. 

Those who support the clause say it’s a necessary public health measure, aimed at forcing the hand of those who refuse to vaccinate their children. A Likud spokesman did not return calls seeking comment on the party’s support of linking vaccinations to child subsidies.

The clause is the latest in a string of government attempts to use child subsidies to influence citizens’ behaviors and shape the contours of Israeli society.

Haredi Orthodox parties support high subsidies because they enable large families, typical of those parties’ constituents, to make ends meet. Secularist parties, by contrast, see high subsidies as a counterproductive entitlement that allows parents with many children to avoid working.

“Throughout the years [child subsidies] became a bargaining chip in coalition agreements,” said Noam Gruber, a senior researcher at the Shoresh Institute, a think tank focused on socioeconomic issues. “When you give a high child subsidy, it becomes normative that a woman will stay home and have children. That blocks the path to education and work.”

Introduced in 1959, the subsidies got higher as families grew larger. Until recently, the payments worked on a progressive scale, so that parents received a larger per-child subsidy for each subsequent child. A 2001 law penned by a UTJ lawmaker gave a family with one child approximately $40 per month, while a family with five children received about $600 per month — including a $200 addition for the fifth child. 

Facing an economic crisis in 2003, then-Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut the total subsidy budget by 40 percent. Ten years later, then-Finance Minister Yair Lapid cut the subsidies again as an incentive for haredi men — many of whom studied Torah all day — to join the labor force.

Lapid’s cuts, which are currently in place, replaced the progressive payment scale with a flat scale. Families receive approximately $36 per month per child, no matter how many children they have.

After payments began in 1959, the number of large families ballooned. In 1960, there were fewer than 40,000 Israeli families with four or more children. By 1975, that number had nearly tripled to 111,000.

“These families support themselves with subsidies,” Mickey Levy, Lapid’s deputy finance minister from 2013 to 2014, told JTA. “We addressed this issue to integrate these people in the labor force. When we were in exile in Poland, we didn’t sit and learn Torah all day. We worked and we learned Torah.”

The subsidies are one of several Israeli pro-natal policies, enacted in part to maintain a Jewish majority in Israel and replenish Jewish numbers following the Holocaust, Gruber said. Alongside the subsidies, the government provides three months of paid maternity leave and safeguards against firing pregnant women.

“We feel we need a higher birth rate,” Gruber said. “We don’t want to be in the situation of Western Europe and Japan, of a population that’s getting smaller. In the context of the Jewish nation, we want numbers.”

Now, with Lapid’s Yesh Atid party out of the governing coalition, and haredi parties back in, subsidies are set to rise again. The Likud-UTJ agreement includes a rollback of Lapid’s cuts, which UTJ spokesman Yair Eiserman said is part of a package of reforms to help poor Israelis — including, for example, free dental care for children.

“We wanted there to be a social change,” he said. “The last government hurt the weaker classes and the middle class. There were dramatic blows to national insurance, welfare. We saw to it to change the situation, to guide budgets to the weaker classes so they won’t collapse under the economic burden.”

Critics of the anti-vaxxer clause say it will hurt poor families. According to the 2014 State Comptroller’s report, as of 2010, the number of unvaccinated children had been growing, many from haredi or Bedouin families who refused vaccines either because of misinformation or an ideological opposition to vaccination. While Jewish Israelis, on average, had fewer than three children per family according to a 2009 Central Bureau of Statistics report, Arab Israelis had an average of 3.62 and haredi Israelis 6.53. 

“We cannot agree to a precedent that hurts children due to actions of their parents that the state does not like,” Yizhak Kadman, executive director of the Israel National Council for the Child, wrote in an email to JTA. “Cutting the child subsidies will unnecessarily hurt poor families and weak populations that are sometimes excluded from health services.”

Activists for Arab-Israeli rights also support high subsidies due to the above-average Arab-Israeli birthrate, as well as the community’s high rates of poverty. Eyad Snunu, chief economist for Arab-Israeli advocacy group Mossawa, told JTA the government should invest in Arab communities if it wants to increase labor force participation — not cut subsidies.

“The statistics show that immediate cancellation of the subsidies, without preparing the ground for employment training, only deepens poverty,” Snunu said. 

Gruber sees high child subsidies as an unsustainable burden on taxpayers. But those attempting to cut the payments, he said, should learn from previous cuts, which proved debilitating for poor families.

“They cut a lot of money from the subsidies and pushed families into real poverty,” he said. “On the other hand, there wasn’t enough emphasis on giving them the tools to enter the work force.”

http://www.jta.org/2015/05/26/news-opinion/politics/will-israel-kill-child-subsidies-for-anti-vaxxers?utm_source=Newsletter+subscribers&utm_campaign=a037962c9b-Daily_Briefing_5_25_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2dce5bc6f8-a037962c9b-27072289

Jacob A. Farkas, 42, of Lakewood is facing three counts of burglary and charges of stalking and invasion of privacy after his arrest Tuesday, according to township police and records from the Ocean County Jail in Toms River, where Farkas was still locked up Wednesday.

Jacob A. Farkas, 42, of Lakewood

LAKEWOOD - Police have arrested a man they believe stalked a woman for three years and installed a video camera in her shower - in part because the woman herself fought back with surveillance videos of her own.

Jacob A. Farkas, 42, of Lakewood is facing three counts of burglary and charges of stalking and invasion of privacy after his arrest Tuesday, according to township police and records from the Ocean County Jail in Toms River, where Farkas was still locked up Wednesday.

Shortly before noon Tuesday, members of the Lakewood Civilian Safety Watch (LCSW) contacted police about "a possible burglary in progress," according to a prepared statement from police Lt. LeRoy Marshall. Police went to a Pawnee Road home where they found and arrested Farkas "without incident."

Police surmised that Farkas "had been stalking the female victim for approximately 3 years," 

Marshall wrote. "On three separate occasions, Farkas illegally entered the victim's residence."

Police believe Farkas entered the woman's home on Monday "and installed a small camera in her bathroom facing the the shower," Marshall wrote Tuesday. "The victim located the video recording device which prompted her to install surveillance cameras in the home last night."

On Tuesday morning the woman was watching a live feed from her own cameras "when she observed Farkas burglarize her residence once again," Marshall wrote. "She alerted her husband and the LCSW who in turn contacted the police."

Police Detective Michael P. Cavallo led the investigation with help from officers Jason R. Yahr and Kevin M. Bell, Marshall said. The High Tech Crimes Unit from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office and crime scene investigators from the Ocean County Sheriff's Office also worked on the investigation.

"Special thanks to LCSW for their prompt notification to the Police Department," Marshall wrote.

https://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2018/11/07/jacob-allen-farkas-stalking-arrest-lakewood/1917450002/?fbclid=IwAR1QJmSnNPxGHLtnOyjWW0DC5c3D1WzZ9ptFiX_9U76i8j8TwuW07hkU8zI