Posters & books: Health Min. fights vaccine misinformation among haredim
The small, fringe group that is spreading the misinformation is denying infection rates, insisting that the virus is only a light flu, and that the whole thing is a conspiracy
By SARAH BEN-NUNUltra-Orthodox men wait to receive the coronavirus vaccine at a COVID-19 vaccination center in Kiryat Ye'arim, January 25, 2021(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)
The Israeli Health Ministry is using its resources to fight a dangerous and quick spread of vaccine misinformation in the country's haredi (ultra-Orthodox) communities.The ministry's department for the education of the ultra-Orthodox public gave examples of the misinformation that is spreading which includes insisting that senior haredi rabbis who have publicly supported the vaccine do not support it 'in reality,' as well as presenting information to look medically accurate that advocates against vaccination.According to the department, the small, fringe group that is spreading the misinformation is denying infection rates, insisting that the virus is only a light flu, and that the pandemic is a conspiracy.The group also insists that those who are sick turn only to "doctors they can trust."To begin to combat this, the Health Ministry's department will publish and disseminate a book of halachic responses that will tackle each of the claims made by vaccine-deniers one-by-one, with reliable sources from the field. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, told Jews everywhere to get the vaccine if they could, saying that it is obligatory according to Halacha.In December, Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, one of the leading Ashkenazi haredi rabbis, received his vaccine, and urged the public to follow. Just last month, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most senior ultra-Orthodox rabbis in the world, called — for the second time — to the ultra-Orthodox community to seek out the vaccine. And, on Thursday, schools urged teachers and students over 16 to go get vaccinated.United Torah Judaism (UTJ) MK Yaakov Tessler protested against the lack of proper information dissemination in haredi communities in a Knesset meeting last year in June, claiming that only 5.6% of the budget dedicated to coronavirus information was dedicated to haredi communities, who currently make up 12.6% of the population, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Israel Democracy Institute explained.In the meeting, UTJ MK Eliahu Hassid claimed that the reason the attempts at information dissemination failed is because they weren't in touch with the reality of haredim on the ground.When 100 people live crowded in one building, "believing what they believe," he said, "an ad in a haredi newspaper is not a proper campaign."He added that the ultra-Orthodox population isn't exposed to mainstream media, so that the common vaccine information so easily accessible to everyone else is not readily available.Jerusalem Post Staff and Tobias Siegal contributed to this report.
