‘I felt I had to do something’ - I Know That Feeling!

 

*‘I felt I had to do something’*

 

Orthodox advocates for sex abuse victims rally against Teaneck restaurateur

Advocates for victims of sexual abuse rallied in front of the Humble Toast in Teaneck on Sunday.

 

On Sunday, a crowd of 30 people gathered to protest in front of the Humble Toast, a kosher restaurant in Teaneck’s Queen Anne Road business district.

The protest came in response to two civil suits alleging that the restaurant’s owner and chef, Shalom Yehudiel, had allegedly sexually assaulted and harassed two underage girls; one of them was an employee of the Humble Toast, and the other alleged that the assault happened at the synagogue where she and her family go.

Mr. Yehudiel has heatedly denied the charges, stating in court filings that they are false and frivolous and countersuing for defamation.

Richard Mazawey, Mr. Yehudiel’s attorney, insists that the lawsuits “are absolutely baseless and defamatory in nature. My client totally disavows each and every allegation.”

He said there is “a campaign of hate against my client, probably coming from the plaintiffs and their related parties, seeking to portray my client in a false light as a sex offender. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s been very very difficult. My client has received hate threats. You can win in a court of law and sometimes lose in the court of public opinion. If people do enough damage on the street and social media and the corridors of non-legal activity, they can certainly do extreme damage to one’s livelihood. My client’s numbers have been drastically off in the past 30 to 60 days.

“The subject of childhood sexual abuse should be on everyone’s mind and should be a top priority to have zero tolerance for, but we should also have a zero tolerance in our laws and court of public opinion for false and bald allegations.”

Mr. Mazawey said he plans to be aggressive in the lawsuit and he looks forward to taking the plaintiffs’ depositions. He said that New Jersey provides 450 days of discovery for civil suits such as this one — a period that began when the cases were filed in February — so he expects a trial date some time next fall.

Last week, before the rally, the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, which certifies the kashrut at the Humble Toast as well as at Mr. Yehudiel’s nearby kosher Italian restaurant, La Cucina di Nava, issued a statement concerning the allegations.

“Over the course of the past several weeks, it has been brought to the attention of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County (the ‘RCBC’) that Shalom Yehudiel, owner of the Humble Toast and La Cucina di Nava, is the subject of multiple civil lawsuits in the Superior Court of the State of New Jersey. The RCBC reiterates its unequivocal stance that there is zero tolerance for any form of sexual misconduct or abuse both in and out of our synagogues, schools or restaurants and that victims of sexual misconduct or abuse, in any form, must be given the ability to have their voices heard and to have all allegations seriously considered,” the statement said.

“In light of the serious nature of the aforementioned allegations, the RCBC is closely monitoring the ongoing civil case as it works its way through the legal system. In the interim, the RCBC has implemented a number of internal policy changes to ensure that the employees and patrons of both restaurants are safe and that the integrity of the kashrut supervision is not compromised. We take this opportunity to remind the Bergen County community that we must remain vigilant and report any instance of abuse to the proper authorities,” the statement concluded.

On Wednesday morning, president of the RCBC, Rabbi Zev Goldberg of the Young Israel of Fort Lee, noted that the situation is evolving.

“The RCBC has a twofold responsibility in this situation,” he explained in an email. “Given the serious nature of the allegations put forth in the civil lawsuit, we have a responsibility to consider the safety and welfare of the current employees and customers at the restaurants. At the same time, there is a presumption of innocence unless proven guilty. We have been working hard to respond in a balanced fashion. With all of this in mind, the RCBC and Shalom Yehudiel have come to an agreement that Shalom will not be present at either restaurant until this matter is resolved.”

Sunday’s rally was organized under the auspices of Za’akah, an organization formed to fight child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community, by Netanel Zellis-Paley, who grew up in Bergenfield and Teaneck, attended local day schools and Yeshiva College, and now is a graduate student at Temple University in Philadelphia studying to be a school psychologist.

“I felt I had to do something,” he said. “I would ask people if they had heard these allegations and they hadn’t.”

Mr. Zellis-Paley said he wanted “to give community members an opportunity to make an informed decision about whether they want to patronize the restaurant, whether for moral reasons or to protect their own safety or the safety of their children. We weren’t trying to get the restaurant shut down. We weren’t even trying to get the RCBC to remove the hashgacha,” its kosher supervision.

“I would be pleased if as a result of our efforts, there are safety measures implemented that protect employees and customers, whether it’s installing cameras everywhere to make sure he is never alone with female employees or customers, or even forbidding him from being in the restaurant at all,” he said.

Mr. Zellis-Paley said that over the weekend he met with a rabbi who is a member of the RCBC to explain the rally and discuss the case. He said the conversation captured the dynamic that advocates of alleged victims frequently encounter.

“He kept referring to the fact that the allegations are only accusations,” he said. “He referenced the fact that they may be fabricated. He repeated a lot of the common dismissive arguments. He asked why hasn’t there been a criminal case? I told him that in at least one of the cases there was a criminal case that was closed in a matter of weeks, because the standard of evidence the criminal justice system requires in these kind of cases is impossibly high. The prosecution will only take cases if they’re almost certain they’re going to win. Also, victims of sexual abuse often prefer to go to civil court, because in criminal cases they are not directly represented; they are just witnesses in the state’s case against the accused perpetrator. In civil cases they get direct representation.

“He kept coming back to the fact that this is an open case that hasn’t been adjudicated in court yet. But it’s my firm belief that the justice system is not the only one who can make a determination about whether these things happened or not. Despite the robust application of halacha” — Jewish law — “to so many other areas of daily life, Orthodox halacha and Orthodox rabbis haven’t formulated an application of halacha to cases of sexual abuse, a way to clarify the credibility of claims of sexual abuse, even though there is a robust system of halachic concepts available to do that. There are so many cases in the Shulchan Aruch, in halachic tort law and monetary law, where we don’t know exactly what happened, and there are competing claims, but halacha has certain mechanisms for determining what the truth is. Even if it’s admitted that we can’t determine what happened a hundred percent, what can we assume happened based on all the evidence we have?

“In the case of sexual abuse, a lot of the evidence is directly in the experience of the victim, in their own trauma, in the way it affected their lives. Until Orthodox halacha seriously addresses the issue of sexual abuse and seriously formulates an approach to applying these halachic concepts to complicated cases like this, I don’t think there will be real progress. You don’t need the justice system to determine the truth all the time, and there are so many other cases where halacha, rather than the American legal system, is enough to determine the truth.”

Shabbos Kestenbaum, 23, lived in Teaneck until the end of ninth grade, when his family moved to Riverdale. He has volunteered for Zaaka’s hotline for Orthodox Jews who feel alone and despondent on Shabbat and Jewish holidays and need to talk to someone who understands them. He gave the main speech at the rally.

“For far too long, there has been abuse in our communities, whether we like to admit it or not, and the change starts with us,” he said. “We are saying enough is enough. Our goal was to send a clear message that the Jewish community and the Teaneck community will not tolerate this anymore.”

Mr. Kestenbaum echoed the argument that the Jewish community should not withhold its judgment until allegations are proven in court.

“As Orthodox Jews, we believe safek d’oraita l’chumra — if there is a doubt in terms of biblical law, you follow the most stringent opinion. Sexual abuse and rape demand stringency.”

https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/i-felt-i-had-to-do-something/?utm_source=Jewish+Standard+Daily&utm_campaign=125e9cc81e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_26_08_03_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1d7094cc43-125e9cc81e-407694561

Dangerous, Reckless, Dumb & Stupid - The Level of Ignorance is Astounding! Zwiebel Pleads His Case To The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - Why Not Just Check In?

UNVACCINATED DEATHS 13X HIGHER - UNVACCINATED ILLNESS 5X HIGHER

Jackie Mason Dead - Ephraim Wachsman Lives - Saturday Night Live At The Agudah Convention...

 

 

Before Wachsman got into his car to attend this event, he probably was not aware that more than 20,000 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in the first half of 2021. The estimated number was 18.4% higher than the first half of last year, prompting Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to call the increase an unacceptable crisis.

That percentage increase was the biggest six-month increase since the department began recording fatal crash data since 1975.

The department, which includes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, announced that it will develop a national strategy for steps to save lives on the roads.

 I remember when a certain Jewish sect banned the telephone from their homes, then the radio ban kicked in. Who can forget the Jewish homes with customized made to order built in furniture to camouflage TVs in their closets? Then came the ban of visual aids for children learning the aleph bet. Along came Torah Tapes, rabbis were besides themselves "this is not learning"!

Who can forget the fit Rabbi Elya Svei had when the Talmud was being translated into English?

Does Ephraim Wachsman travel on an airplane? Anyone there dressed inappropriately? How about walking on the street?

A few years ago he soiled his diapers at a gathering banning the Internet, who at this comedy show in New Jersey does not have the Internet at home and at work?

What percentage of the Agudah crowd is not labeled officially obese - were there any restrictions on the amount of food gorged at this diabetes gathering?

The problem is not technology or information, the ABUSE of technology and misinformation in the Jewish community is! If there is no basic comprehension of right and wrong, where Consumerism uber alles is the mantra in all Jewish communities, you get generational ignorance & indifference passed along from parent to child.

The Agudah claimed to sign on to banning the use of smartphones, and those giants of thought will be coming up with ways to eliminate their use.

Here are a few simple suggestions to the esteemed rabbis:

1 - Nobody can be a member of the Agudah who has a smartphone (and their families included)

2 - Nobody can be a member of the board of directors if they have a smartphone.

3 - Nobody can attend any Agudah or Torah gathering of any kind if they have a smartphone.

 4 - Nobody can be on the board of any yeshiva if they have a smartphone.

5 - THE AGUDAH AND ALL YESHIVAS WILL ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO TAKE ANY DONATIONS FROM ANY PERSON OR FAMILY WHO HAVE SMARTPHONES & WILL REFUSE TO NAME ANY BUILDING AFTER ANYONE WHO HAD A SMARTPHONE WHEN HE OR SHE WAS ALIVE! 

(CERTAIN EXCEPTIONS CAN BE MADE TO WEALTHY PEOPLE WHO HAVE CHILDREN OUT OF WEDLOCK IF THE AMOUNT DONATED IS $5 MILLION PLUS, AFTER ALL WE STILL NEED TO SET AN EXAMPLE FOR OUR CHILDREN THAT ANY LOWLIFE WITH MONEY CAN GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING, TORAH VALUES BE DAMNED!)

Looking for an Ephraim Wachsman performance at a theater near me.

 

  אפרים ווקסמן גדול הטפשים

הוא מכהן כראש ישיבה ולא כרב ולכן אולי לא שמע מרבנים מומחים כי אחד הדברים החשובים ביותר אצל כל מי שמכהן בתפקיד של רב הוא להשתדל הרבה בחלק החמישי ועוד יותר מארבעה חלקי שולחן ערוך. ומדוע? מפני שלעיתים חושבים שעושים כל כך נכון ולא קולטים כי הם גורמים להשחתה ולמעשים שאנשים לא היו עושים בלעדיו

שמעתי את דבריו של אפרים ווקסמן ממונסי בועידת אגודת ישראל ולא האמנתי שמי שאחרים מכנים אותו חכם כמה טיפש הוא. הוא הזכיר לי סיפור עם יהודי שנכשל וחטא והגיע לרב וביקש לשוב בתשובה. הרב ניסה והשתדל לדעת במה חטא, ושאל את החוטא האם חטא עם פלונית וציין את שמה, והחוטא השיב לא. המשיך הרב ושאל האם חטא עם אשה אחרת שנקב בשמה וגם כאן אמר החוטא כי לא. הרב שראה שאינו יכול להוציא ממנו עם מי חטא אמר לו, אם אינך אומר לי עם מי חטאת אין תשובה

קם היהודי ממקומו ואמר לרב, תשובה לא אשיג כאן אבל שתי כתובות חדשים קיבלתי. בדיוק כך זה היה בנאומו של הרב ווקסמן. לא אעשה כאן את מה שהוא עשה ולא אציין במה מדובר. הרב ווקסמן צעק וצווח הייתכן כי ענין מסויים חדר לבתי הציבור החרדי היתכן? אני מעולם לא שמעתי על הענין הזה ועוד הרבה אחרים אמרו לי כי עד שהוא זעק בועידת אגודת ישראל במה מדובר הם לא ידעו שקיים דבר כזה. ומי במוצאי שבת ואחרים ששמעו מהוידאו ביום ראשון הורידו את הענין לטלפון שלהם ומעתה הוא שירת את השטן עם עוד מאות ומי יודע אם לא אלפים החלו להשתמש בעניין ההוא בגללו

אחד הדברים החשובים לדעת - כך זה היה עם הרבה דברים בעבר - שישנם עשרות אלפים שכלל אינם יודעים מן העניינים הללו וברגע שנואמים נאום שכזה הם משרתים את אותה חברה בשירות ששווה מיליונים ואינם קולטים כי הם בעצם עושים הרבה יותר טוב לשטן מאשר לענין עצמו, הוא לא משיג עשירית ממה שהוא מקלקל

כן, צריכים לפעול ולעשות שדברים כאלו לא יהיו  בבתי ישראל, אבל צריך לעבוד חכם ולא בדרשות מן הסוג הזה שמקלקל הרבה יותר מאשר מתקן

 

Once, after grabbing her and asking, “Do you love me?,” she refused to respond. The rabbi punched her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, according to the lawsuit.

 

Orthodox Union, youth group sued over past handling of sex abuse

 

4 women allege OU, NCSY knowingly allowed Rabbi Baruch Lanner’s sexual and violent behavior against them when they were teens despite numerous, long-standing complaints against him

A flyer from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Sexual Offender registry lists Baruch Lanner’s status as “Subject to Registration.

 

New York Jewish Week via JTA — More than two decades after publication of allegations that Rabbi Baruch Lanner abused teens in his charge for more than 30 years, four of his victims are seeking their day in court.

The four women, now middle-aged and older, filed a lawsuit Monday with the Superior Court of New Jersey in Middlesex County against Lanner, the Orthodox Union (OU) and the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), the OU’s youth arm, where Lanner was a top official.

It is believed to be the first such legal action taken against the Orthodox organizations as a result of the scandal involving Lanner, 72, who was forced to resign days after The Jewish Week published in 2000 an investigation that detailed charges against him by more than a dozen former NCSY members.

The revelations emboldened other accusers, and in 2002 Lanner was convicted of sexually abusing two teenage girls who were students in the 1990s at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Deal, New Jersey, where he had been principal in between stints at NCSY. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, served nearly three years and was released on parole in early 2008.

The lawsuit focuses only on his time at NCSY, according to Boz Tchividjian, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs. He said it alleges that the two prominent Orthodox organizations knowingly allowed the rabbi’s predatory behavior at its youth group to continue despite numerous, long-standing complaints that he sexually, physically and emotionally abused girls and boys in his role as NCSY’s director of regions.

The suit was filed under recent changes in New Jersey law that allowed for a two-year “lookback” window during which sexual abuse victims could come forward and sue their abusers and their enablers. That deadline is November 30, prompting the four women to file their lawsuit now. Previously, a statute of limitations in New Jersey had inhibited any civil suits against the Orthodox organizations that employed Lanner.

“Our clients are going to finally hold Baruch Lanner accountable for his deplorable and abusive conduct, and the Orthodox Union accountable for giving a known offender decades of access to vulnerable children who he terrorized and victimized,” said Tchividjian. “By filing this lawsuit, these bold women are reclaiming the power that was taken from them by a perpetrator and the organization that employed him and empowered him.”

Another attorney for the plaintiffs, Brian Kent, of the law firm Laffey, Bucci & Kent in Philadelphia, said participants might still be added to the lawsuit if they come forward by the deadline Tuesday.

Asked to respond to the women’s accusations in the days before the suit was filed, a spokesperson for the OU told The Jewish Week: “The OU is not aware of any impending lawsuit and therefore cannot comment.”

A lawsuit alleges that the Orthodox Union, located on Lower Broadway in Manhattan (above) knowingly allowed a rabbi’s predatory behavior to continue at its youth group decades ago

 

Among the charges in the lawsuit, according to Tchividjian, are that the OU and NCSY were negligent in failing to protect children — that instead they protected themselves by ignoring or dismissing complaints about Lanner’s “willful, malicious and wanton” actions for decades.

Even by 2000, when the Lanner story came to light, the statute of limitations had long passed for those complainants, preventing them from taking legal action. The article received national and international attention and was cited as “a watershed in the way the Orthodox community addresses sexual abuse,” according to the Baltimore Jewish Times.

But the women bringing the lawsuit are among those who believe the problem persists, and that despite impressive written policies and standards, systemic cultural change is still required at the OU and NCSY as well as other Orthodox institutions.

“What’s needed is for organizations to protect their members, not just protect their organizations,” said Jessie (not her real name), one of the four plaintiffs in the lawsuit, in an interview with The Jewish Week.

(The four women are not named in the lawsuit, their attorneys said, and in response to their request for privacy, they are not named here. The pseudonyms are for the purposes of this article.)

“For now, the culture is to do what is technically defensible,” Jessie said, “rather than what is the right thing to do for all members.”

She noted that while the Reform and Conservative movements are in the midst of major internal reckonings on sexual misbehavior and moral accountability concerning their clergy, and making the information public, the Orthodox community leadership has not announced any such action.

Jessie also said that neither she nor the other Lanner victims she knows were ever approached by the OU or NCSY to apologize or offer assistance after their experiences became known through The Jewish Week report in 2000.

This week, two of the four women who brought the lawsuit spoke with The Jewish Week. They each recalled their separate traumatic experiences with Lanner, dealing with his aggressive sexual behavior and violent temper when they were teens in the 1970s — much of it detailed in the Jewish Week article and in the current lawsuit. And the women explained why they chose to take legal action now.

Jessie was 16 when she became involved with NCSY in 1974. One weekend she attended a Shabbaton in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Lanner had arranged for her to sleep at a home next door to the home where he was staying, she said.

At night, when no one was around, “he tried to kiss and caress me.” When she pushed him away and threatened to tell a rabbi’s wife about his behavior, “he put his hands around my neck and began strangling me. Only when he saw that I was losing consciousness did he stop. And he walked away without a word.”

Jessie said she told no one at the time because she realized it was futile to do so. There was “a sense of conspiracy of enablers and a sexualized atmosphere” at Lanner-led NCSY events, she said, with the rabbi engaged in “explicit sexual kidding, talk of body parts,” commenting on girls’ figures, and similar behavior. The male advisors, mostly college students, “observed all of this and understood that it was ok to cross boundaries, to touch girls.”

But the excitement of being part of a close-knit social and religious group led by a charismatic rabbi kept Jessie and other youngsters actively involved in NCSY.

The following year, when Lanner chose Jessie to be regional president of NCSY, she agreed on the condition that he not molest her. If he tried, she told him, she would report him to Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, the founding director of NCSY.

In response, Lanner “laughed at me,” she recalled, “and said, ‘they all know about me,” including Stolper. In the 2000 article, Stolper acknowledged there were several complaints from young women many years previously about improper behavior by Lanner, but said he found no real substance to the charges.

Attempts to reach both Lanner and Stolper for this article were unsuccessful.

During her time as president, Jessie said she “witnessed Lanner prey on multiple 14 and 15-year-old girls,” according to the lawsuit.

She told The Jewish Week “it was inconceivable” that the leadership of the organization did not know of Lanner’s behavior.

For me it closed the door for religion

Nancy (not her real name) was 15 in 1974 when she took part in NCSY’s annual summer program in Israel at Lanner’s urging. At one point during the tour, Lanner called her into his room and questioned her loyalty to him, threatening to send her home or transfer her to another tour group, she said. When she began to cry, the rabbi told her she could prove her loyalty by kissing him on the cheek. She did, and he told her she could stay.

He paired her with another girl, Sarah (not her real name) as roommates. Nancy witnessed how Sarah would be called away by Lanner in the evenings to meet with him. “Then my turn came,” Nancy said, “the touching and kissing.” This went on at least a dozen times, according to Nancy.

Once, after grabbing her and asking, “Do you love me?,” she refused to respond. The rabbi punched her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, according to the lawsuit.

Over time, the two girls confided in each other, sharing details of Lanner’s similar pattern of behavior.

At one point, they both claimed to be ill so they wouldn’t have to go to Eilat with Lanner and the group.

On a visit to Bayit V’Gan, Nancy met with an American rabbi and told him what was happening. “He seemed shocked and genuinely sympathetic,” she said, but nothing came of it.

Toward the end of the trip, she approached Stolper, who was visiting for the weekend. “When I told him that Rabbi Lanner was acting inappropriately with me, he said, ‘I’m sure you misunderstood him.’ And then he asked me, “But are you having a good time” on the trip?

“He didn’t seem at all surprised by the allegations,” Nancy said.

The experiences of the other two women were similar to those of Jessie and Nancy, as described in the lawsuit, according to their attorneys.

Susan (not her real name) was 13 years old when she became involved with NCSY. She was “groomed” by Lanner for months, made to feel noticed and special before he began to kiss, touch and grope her when they were alone. This occurred more than 20 times over the next two and a half years.

On an NCSY summer program in Israel, Susan found the courage to say “no” to the rabbi’s advances. He became angry and punched her in the chest. She told no one, fearful that Lanner would send her home.

During the next school year, while riding in a car together, Lanner attempted to pull over to an isolated area and sexually assault Susan.

When she told an NCSY advisor, a young rabbi, he referred her to a higher-up in the organization who, according to Susan, told her: “I inherited the monster. I didn’t create him.”

No action was taken to report Lanner’s behavior then or many other times when Susan told rabbis of the OU, and other rabbis, of being sexually abused by Lanner.

Laura (not her real name) was 12 when she was active in NCSY. She recalled that Lanner insisted on driving her home one Saturday night from a Shabbaton. He pulled over to a deserted parking lot, she said, told her to take off her shirt and tried to kiss her.

“For me, it closed the door for religion,” she stated. “I feel that he took advantage of an innocent soul and you can never get that innocence back.”

The two women who spoke to The Jewish Week in recent days emphasized that their primary motive for filing a lawsuit almost a half-century after some of these painful incidents was not for financial gain or revenge. And that it was a difficult decision to wade into a legal battle against two large, prominent Orthodox institutions.

“It always bothered me that the OU was never really accountable,” Nancy said. “I do want my day in court because I want to see real change. I wouldn’t mind people seeing that a few women can change the way things are.”

Jessie echoed the sentiment, asserting that she wants “to see the culture change around sexual safety in Orthodox institutions.

“No real guilt was admitted. There was no true reckoning. The process of teshuva means acknowledging one’s mistakes, facing the hard truth.”

She said she was “delighted to see” that NCSY released a new Conduct, Policy and Behavioral Standards Manual as of September 17, which includes guidelines on reporting, “grooming behavior,” “boundary violations” and “inappropriate behavior with minors.”  “Whether it was because they knew a lawsuit was coming or just a coincidence, it’s a very positive move,” she said.

Jessie added that she hoped the lawsuit will be “an important catalyst.”

Mostly, she holds out the hope that when it comes to safety for all, the actions of the OU and NCSY will be “grounded in Jewish ethics and sources — not because someone is watching these organizations or suing them but because it is what God and our religion demands of us.”

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/orthodox-union-youth-group-sued-over-past-handling-of-sex-abuse-cases/

Not at the Agudah Convention - Be Back Soon

 

What Would Shmuel & Aaron See in a Covid ICU ? ----- They would see patients, young and old, gasping for air, wracked with pain that scorches the chest. He would see patients pleading for a first dose of the vaccine, even though at that point it would be too late to help them recover. He would see patients in cramped emergency wings, traditionally meant for quick triage, sometimes stuck there for 24 hours because there are not enough beds in intensive care units. He might see death in the E.R. Or, more common, funeral home workers carting coffins out of the I.C.U.

 

 

 

What Aaron Rodgers & Shmuel Kamenetzky Should See: Covid Suffering in a Wisconsin E.R.

 

The Rabbi & The Quarterback - Dumb & Dumber!

An emergency room doctor laments the Green Bay Packers quarterback’s missed opportunity to promote vaccines instead of dispute them.

It is perhaps all too easy to bash Aaron Rodgers, the latest star athlete & cholent for brains rabbi to show them suffering from a God complex, hovering above the fray, more than willing to spew medical quackery and virus all over us mere mortals.

Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback, is one of the greats when it comes to controlling football games and throwing arcing spirals for highlights-reel touchdowns. But that gridiron genius was undercut when it came out last week that he had not only tested positive for the coronavirus but had also warped the truth about whether he was vaccinated.

“If the vaccine is so great,” Rodgers said in an interview with a radio host who is a friend of his, “how come people are still getting Covid and spreading Covid and unfortunately dying from Covid?”

Apparently, Rodgers missed the memo that while they are not foolproof, the vaccines are close to 90 percent effective and by far the best tools we have to beat back this plague.

Rodgers has been spewing other falsehoods about the virus and its treatments. So maybe he should spend time with Dr. Kyle Martin. He’s the medical director of emergency services at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wis., and he also works at two hospitals in rural parts of the state.

“We’re still very much in a crisis,” Dr. Martin, a self-described N.F.L. superfan, said when we spoke this week. “People are still dying in large numbers. And our health system, it’s stressed to the max.”

Covid-19 burns hot in Wisconsin, where it is now primarily a disease of the unvaccinated, many who clearly take their cues from celebrities like Rodgers.

After a period of decline, case numbers are spiraling up, and with them, visits to emergency rooms and stays in intensive care. If the typical cycle continues, deaths will rise in a state that is currently losing about 19 people per day to the virus.

“Rodgers is an icon here in our state,” Dr. Martin said. To have him questioning the vaccine and sow vaccine doubt “undercuts what we’re trying to do as a health care system. It’s just tragic.”

What would the quarterback see?

“He would see how Covid is now not just in urban centers — it’s ravaging rural Wisconsin,” the doctor said.

Rodgers would see patients, young and old, gasping for air, wracked with pain that scorches the chest. He would see patients pleading for a first dose of the vaccine, even though at that point it would be too late to help them recover.

He would see patients in cramped emergency wings, traditionally meant for quick triage, sometimes stuck there for 24 hours because there are not enough beds in intensive care units.

He might see death in the E.R. Or, more common, funeral home workers carting coffins out of the I.C.U.

He might get a taste of how the doubters of science-based medicine have poisoned the well. Remember last year, when frontline workers were heroes? These days, according to one Wisconsin health official I spoke with this week, anti-vaxxers have been known to show up in front of hospitals, spewing venom at doctors and nurses heading in to do the work of saving patients.

Dr. Martin told the story of a father who barricaded himself and his critically ill child in a hospital room, shouting that Covid was a hoax made up by doctors. “You are not taking my daughter,” the father said after a transfer was recommended. According to Dr. Martin, the father demanded a promise to send the child to a hospital that does not require masks. Of course, there is no such hospital. It took a team of police officers and sheriff’s deputies to calm the situation, Dr. Martin said, and to help the girl get the care she needed.

In Rodgers’s latest interview — well, more like a staged appearance with questions spoon-fed by the host, Pat McAfee, a former N.F.L. punter — he trotted out a half-baked apology and claimed to take full responsibility for what he had said the week before. He also said he stood by his position on vaccines.

It’s not clear he truly understands the ripple-effect damage caused by a sports star of his magnitude sowing doubt. Physicians are the ones dealing with this calamity in real-time, and a lot of their work these days centers on convincing the reluctant that there’s one tool available to help curb the mass spread of Covid — the vaccine.

“If I can establish a rapport, I might be able to get some science, some actual facts in front of the patient,” Dr. Martin said. “But Aaron Rodgers is someone everybody knows, and he’s someone whose views are listened to. So now when I’m in front of that reluctant patient, they have these conflicting things that they’ve heard. And that’s not making this any easier.”

Is it possible to have sympathy for Rodgers and other athletes suggesting doubt about the vaccines? (Thinking of you, Kyrie Irving.) Well, sure. For all their fame, they are like the rest of us, trying to make sense of a horrific situation. Everyone is doing this while facing tsunamis of information.

We are all susceptible to being duped.

So, yes, for all the damage their vaccine-doubting views can bring, we can also spare some compassion — at least a touch, while also holding feet to the fire and expecting sports stars to think of more than themselves during the worst pandemic in a century. With fame and the sway it brings comes that responsibility.

Dr. Martin agrees.

“I’m more than willing to give him a tour of an emergency room, talk to him, and answer his questions,” he told me. Hopefully, Rodgers would listen, even though the doctor is a Minnesota Vikings fan.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/sports/football/aaron-rodgers-vaccine-covid.html