The Best and the Worst of Us

Instant Gan Eden for Lori Gilbert Kaye (Jewish News of Northern California)

Two events. One a Kiddush HaShem. One a Chilul Hashem. This is what I witnessed on a nationally broadcast newscast this morning.

It’s hard to talk about anything positive coming out of the horrific events of last Shabbos in Poway, California. The pain of the murder of Lori Gilbert Kaye - a woman of valor cut down by a vicious antisemite is still raw. As is the injury sustained by Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein; and the trauma of everyone else that was there. 

But as a religious Jew there are things to feel very good about that happened there as well.  Things that can be classified a Kiddush HaShem. It is in how the survivors handled themselves during the event and afterward. And how the public and the mainstream media reacted. It was a Kiddush HaShem across the board. 

Mrs Gilbert Kaye was heroic  - putting her own life at risk to save her rabbi - ultimately losing it in the attempt. Rabbi Goldstein was heroic in trying to grab away the gun from an active shooter in order to prevent any further deaths or injuries. He suffered is own permanent injuries in the process. There is also the congregant who rushed into the sanctuary while the shooter was still there - pulling out as many people as he could and saving their lives. There is the 8 year old girl that was hit by shrapnel and her near adult-like description of what she went through and how she views it all. 

There is also the mainstream media - full of sympathy for all - reporting quite extensively on the events all the way through the funeral of Mrs. Gilbert Kaye. As was the sympathy expressed by what seemed like the entire town Poway. There was not a negative moment in any of that. The post shooting images I saw and the words I heard  presented one of the more positive images of Orthodox Jews I have ever experienced. Whenever Gods chosen people present images like that - a Kiddush HaShem results. Saddened as I was about the deadly attack, I could not have felt prouder about how a community of Orthodox Jews reacted to it - both during and after the fact..

Contrast that with a report I saw on the same newscast about another Orthodox Jewish community. That of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. 

A Chasidic antivaxxer in Williamsburg

The negative reporting out of that community is relentless. And for good reason. The measles epidemic continues - increasing by the day. More than any other community. This is not news. It’s been going on for quite a while now. Because the problem seems to be getting worse is why the media keeps reporting on it. 

The antivaxxers in that community deserve the lion's share of the blame for that. Antivaxxers are not exclusively residents of the highly Chasidic neighborhood of Williamsburg There are other pockets of measles broken out in many other states. But Williamsburg is by far the worst. Which tells me that the antivaxxers there have been the most effective of all in convincing people not to vaccinate their children. 

They are relentless in selling their message of fear about vaccinations - using every means at their diposal in doing so. They do a good job of disputing the advice of virtually all medical experts by painting them as either dupes - or willing conspirators paid off by big pharma for purposes of the billions of dollars of profits made selling those vaccines. One report I saw featured an illustrated antivax pamphlet with the caricatures of the people in them redesigned to look Chasidic. 

This is not to say that the entire community is guilty of not vaccinating their children, most have. But there are enough that haven’t - resulting in hundreds of mostly un-vaccinated children that have contracted measles.

Now one might say that the antivaxers have a right to live their lives the way they choose and not vaccinate their own children. They will argue with conviction that contracting measles is less dangerous than vaccines. And that measles is a relatively harmless disease. Which prior to the advent of vaccines - most children contracted regularly in childhood without any ill effects.

The problem is - that is not the whole story. Some people that get the measles become seriously ill requiring hospitalization with complications like encephalitis. Which can result in permanent brain damage. And in still other cases measles can result in death. 

That they might be willing to risk that for their own children with a claim that those side effects are rare might be fine in a vacuum. But they don’t live in a vacuum. They might also argue that those who want their children to be vaccinated can do so if they choose. The problem is that not everyone is able to be vaccinated.

For some people vaccines are dangerous and even life threatening. Those with compromised immune systems like the elderlyand cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy; babies under 6 months of age not old enough to tolerate vaccines; people with serious allergies to the vaccines... they cannot be vaccinated. But they are protected with something called herd immunity. Which means that if enough people in the community become vaccinated, measles will not occur and the un-vaccinated will thus be protected as well.  When a community is not vaccinated enough, as is obviously the case in Williamsburg, then herd immunity does not take place. Leaving vulnerable those who are not able to be vaccinated for legitimate medical reasons. In short they are putting others at risk. Not just themselves.

Measles is so contagious - it can spread outside of their community very quickly. All you need is one visitor from outside the community to come in contact with the virus. Even though it is being done unwittingly and unintentionally that does not stop the disease from spreading after he leaves. He will be carrying the virus for up to 3 weeks without any symptoms - not even realizing he's carrying it. Spreading it to others just as unwittingly.

Their views about the dangers of vaccines may be stupid. But people have a right to be stupid in this country. As long as they do not harm others with their stupidity. But in this case they clearly do harm others.

Aside from being a stupid and foolish mistake, it is also a dangerous one. Dangerous to themselves and dangerous to others. Making this not only a serious health issue but a Chilul HaShem of major proportion. That is what Jews looking stupid and foolish will do. But a far worse Chilul HaShem is that religious Jews will be blamed for spreading disease.

There is an uptick in antisemitic attacks. While I truly believe that the vast majority of Americans are not antisemitic – and would not become antisemitic even in spite of the antivaxxers in Williamsburg, it does not help matters when these same people are seen as responsible for spreading a disease that was thought to be eradicated in this country a few short years ago. The antisemites of the world don’t need that much to maintain their hatred of us. This only adds to that. Making their antisemitism a much easier sell

So there you have it. Twos stories of religious Jews in one newscast. One a Kiddush HaShem. The other a Chilul HaShem. The former makes me proud. The latter sickens me.