Don’t Vilify Orthodox Jews Because of the Measles Outbreak

A recent New York Times article on the measles outbreaks that have occurred in scattered parts of the United States was illustrated with a picture of a ḥasidic Jew walking down a street. But while popular perception has given the impression that, at least in the New York metropolitan area, ultra-Orthodox Jews who refuse to vaccinate their children are the cause of the epidemic, the truth is somewhat different, as Daniel Berman and Awi Federgruen write:

In this year’s U.S. measles outbreak, parts of Brooklyn and Rockland County have experienced two-thirds of the reported 704 infections. The media generally blame an alleged low vaccination rate in these areas, each with a large percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews. . . . However, the New York State Health Department reports the average vaccination rate for measles among the nearly 200 Jewish K-12 schools in Brooklyn—mainly in [in the ḥasidic enclaves of] Borough Park and Williamsburg—is 96 percent, six percentage points higher than the statewide average among private schools. In contrast, six other New York counties have a vaccination rate below 50 percent.

Moreover, the measles vaccination rate among Jewish school-age children is above the assumed 95-percent threshold required for “herd immunity,” i.e., protection of the community from sustained outbreaks.

What, then, explains the outbreak? Regardless of the vaccination rate, some communities have characteristics that enhance and sustain epidemics. Population density and a community’s social-mixing patterns are two critical determinants of whether an outbreak dies out or remains sustained. Orthodox Jewish communities are densely populated. Families have many children and interact frequently. . . . [I]n a densely populated and highly interactive community, the average infected individual transmits measles to 24 others, and then 99 percent of the community must be vaccinated in order to ensure herd immunity. . . .

It is time to stop vilifying the Orthodox Jewish community when the data show their vaccination rates are as high as any. Continuing to blame this segment of the Jewish community—especially in the news media—is not only wrong. It actually jeopardizes the cooperation that is necessary to stem the outbreak. . . .

Read more at New York Daily News

More about: Brooklyn, Medicine, New York Times, Ultra-Orthodox

American Middle East Policy Should Focus Less on Stability and More on Weakening Enemies

Feb. 10 2025

To Elliott Abrams, Donald Trump’s plan to remove the entire population of Gaza while the Strip is rebuilt is “unworkable,” at least “as a concrete proposal.” But it is welcome insofar as “its sheer iconoclasm might lead to a healthy rethinking of U.S. strategy and perhaps of Arab and Israeli policies as well.” The U.S., writes Abrams, must not only move beyond the failed approach to Gaza, but also must reject other assumptions that have failed time and again. One is the commitment to an illusory stability:

For two decades, what American policymakers have called “stability” has meant the preservation of the situation in which Gaza was entirely under Hamas control, Hizballah dominated Lebanon, and Iran’s nuclear program advanced. A better term for that situation would have been “erosion,” as U.S. influence steadily slipped away and Washington’s allies became less secure. Now, the United States has a chance to stop that process and aim instead for “reinforcement”: bolstering its interests and allies and actively weakening its adversaries. The result would be a region where threats diminish and U.S. alliances grow stronger.

Such an approach must be applied above all to the greatest threat in today’s Middle East, that of a nuclear Iran:

Trump clearly remains open to the possibility (however small) that an aging [Iranian supreme leader Ali] Khamenei, after witnessing the collapse of [his regional proxies], mulling the possibility of brutal economic sanctions, and being fully aware of the restiveness of his own population, would accept an agreement that stops the nuclear-weapons program and halts payments and arms shipments to Iran’s proxies. But Trump should be equally aware of the trap Khamenei might be setting for him: a phony new negotiation meant to ensnare Washington in talks for years, with Tehran’s negotiators leading Trump on with the mirage of a successful deal and a Nobel Peace Prize at the end of the road while the Iranian nuclear-weapons program grows in the shadows.

Read more at Foreign Affairs

More about: Iran, Middle East, U.S. Foreign policy