Incidents such as a bus driver allegedly refusing to stop for a Hassidic man occur as New York City has nearly 500 measles cases

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn grappling with a measles outbreak say they are now dealing with a second scourge: fear, profiling and antisemitism inspired by the outbreak.

Incidents have piled up in recent weeks as measles cases continued to rise, community leaders say: a bus driver allegedly refused to stop for a Hassidic man, and then covered her face and shouted “measles” at him when he eventually got on.

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A flight crew sparked a brief quarantine when they saw an Orthodox Jewish child with mosquito bites and mistook them for measles.

In other cases, advocates say, business associates have declined to meet people in person and asked to do transactions over the phone. Hassidic passengers have hailed Uber pool rides and seen their fellow passenger get out when they enter the car.

“There have been many incidents where there have been these antisemitic, biased slurs against members of the community,” said Rabbi David Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg. “It’s like a license to be antisemitic and say what’s on your mind, and you don’t have to hide it.”

As of 13 May, there have been 498 cases of measles in New York City, according to the city’s health department. Most of the people getting sick are members of the Orthodox community in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood and to a lesser extent Borough Park, though a handful of recent cases have happened outside those neighborhoods.

The mayor, Bill de Blasio, issued an emergency order last month making vaccines mandatory for everyone living in parts of Williamsburg, with $1,000 fines for those who refuse to comply.

Anti-vaccination activists have targeted the Orthodox community, with handbooks and hotlines touting the supposed dangers of vaccines, which have no scientific basis. The propaganda has spread in a tight-knit community where many people do not have exposure to mainstream sources of information.

But rabbis and community leaders have united in urging parents to get their kids vaccinated, stressing there is nothing in Jewish teaching that opposes vaccines.

An analysis by public radio station WNYC found that 3.8% of students were not vaccinated for measles in yeshivas in Williamsburg and Borough Park in 2017, compared with 1% of public school students and 2% of private school students citywide.

“You’re talking about a small percentage of anti-vaxxers – vocal, obviously organized, entrenched in their position, who do not speak for the vast majority of the community,” said community activist Chaskel Bennett, who helped organize a letter from 500 doctors stressing the need for vaccination.

“People should not be profiled based on who they are and what they look like,” he said.

Hassidic Jews have been singled out in part because of their distinctive style of dress, including black hats for men and long skirts for women.

“Suddenly people are looking askance at a whole community of folks, when the only reason you can target these folks any different from anyone else is they look different,” said David Greenfield, the head of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

“You wouldn’t know what an anti-vaxxer in Park Slope looks like, because he or she dresses just like you do,” he said.

The measles outbreak comes amid a broader spike in antisemitic acts across the city and nationwide. Hate crimes have surged in New York City this year, up 66% compared with the same period last year, according to police statistics released this month.

The majority of those crimes have been motivated by antisemitism – 82, nearly double the 45 at this time last year.

There have been no reported crimes where the perpetrators specifically referenced measles, the police commissioner, James O’Neill, said.

There have been two recent alleged attacks against Jewish men in Williamsburg who have been punched by strangers while walking down the street.

Last week, a volunteer emergency medical technician with a Jewish ambulance service came to the aid of a non-Jewish resident and was shouted at by bystanders who told him to “go back to Israel”, according to United Jewish Organizations.

“We’re caught between the anti-vaxxers on one side, and the antisemites on the other,” said Mark Levine, chair of the city council health committee. “We’ve seen a really reprehensible level of rejection directed at Hassidic New Yorkers.”

The health department closed a Jewish school on Monday for failing to turn over records showing all students are vaccinated. Officials previously closed eight other yeshivas, but those have all been allowed to reopen after coming into compliance.

Ninety-eight people have been hit with summonses for defying the mandatory vaccine order. Nearly 23,000 children in Williamsburg and Borough Park have been vaccinated since the outbreak began in the fall.

Alexander Rapaport, who runs the Masbia chain of kosher soup kitchens, was working on a public service announcement with staffers from the mayor’s office to promote vaccination as part of the broader Jewish tradition of caring for the health of neighbors.

Many New Yorkers, he said, have misinterpreted warnings from public health officials to mean that they need to steer clear of Orthodox neighborhoods.

“A lot of the traditional antisemitic tropes are that Jews spread disease. It plays into a very old concept. It plays into a stereotype that’s out there,” he said.

A businessman he knows asked an associate about meeting to pick up a check, and the colleague jokingly wondered if it was safe to allow him in his office, Rapaport said. “Even as a joke, it’s unnecessary. It’s very uncomfortable,” he said.