Ultra-Orthodox pull U-turn on vaccines

Why did Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community drag their feet on vaccination – and then abruptly change their minds?

More than a quarter of Israel’s 800,000 cases of COVID-19 were among haredim. One ultra-Orthodox person over age 60 in every 100 died – six times the national rate. This includes several famous rabbinic leaders, including Rabbi Yitzchok Scheiner, 98, head of the Kamenitz yeshiva; and Brisk Yeshiva head, Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, aged 99.

As late as February 1, one in four new COVID-19 patients were from the Haredi community, who comprise only 12% of the population. There was strong opposition to the vaccine, just as earlier there had been strong – and at times violent – opposition among them towards lockdowns, social distancing and yeshiva closures. For instance, Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, famous for his outreach efforts, created a YouTube channel, Virus TV, denying the coronavirus epidemic and negating the need for vaccination.

Yet by March 12, according to Reuters, three in four haredi adults had been vaccinated, just below the Israeli national average of 88%, either vaccinated or recovered.

An astonishing U-turn indeed! What exactly caused it?

I learned the answer from Daniel Estrin, the US National Public Radio correspondent in Israel, whose concise report for NPR’s Morning Edition program was broadcast to millions of listeners across the US.

Here is the story, as told by Estrin.

Estrin: “On a recent night, I drove with a man who helped wage Israel’s war for the vaccine. Avi Blumenthal is an ultra-Orthodox public relations consultant hired by the Health Ministry. We pass through Sanhedria, one of the Jerusalem neighborhoods he considers his battle ground.

“Avi pointed out very cramped apartments, very crowded conditions. The virus spread fast in these devout Jewish communities. He says many ignored the coronavirus rules against congregating because that’s the glue that keeps their communities together. They meet three times a day for prayer. They attend religious schools. Some rabbis worried they would lose followers if they couldn’t congregate. Infections rose, driving nationwide lockdowns and angering other Israelis. Despite many rabbis’ reluctance to follow lockdown rules, Avi says he still kept a line of communication with them. He needed them on his side because he knew they would have the most influence on their followers to convince them to get vaccinated. But when he first approached them about the vaccines, the rabbi said, ‘Let’s not be first. Let’s wait and see the vaccines’ effects.’ Within a week or two, the rabbis changed their minds.”

How do you counter false rumors about the COVID-19 vaccine? Many countries face growing anti-vax opposition, fueled by fake news, false statistics and outright lies.

Estrin: “I asked Avi, did he appeal to their religious responsibility to save lives? Did he cite Jewish law? He responded: ‘The rabbis did not need a lesson in Jewish scripture. What they needed to know was the science, the effectiveness and the safety of the vaccines.’

“So he [Blumenthal] brought in Israel’s top public health official. Their meeting lasted two hours and the rabbis came out in favor. The next battle was to try and confront rumors and conspiracies that spread in these neighborhoods. Many ultra-Orthodox Jews shun TVs and smartphones, and get their news from street posters and telephone news hotlines.

“Anonymous hotlines... warned against the vaccine, sharing stories of people who got their shots and died without proving it was because of the vaccine. Avi convinced an influential council of rabbis to put anti-vaccine hotlines on a telephone blacklist. Then he went after anti-vaccine posters in the streets.

“Avi shows me the walls where new anti-vaccine posters would appear all the time. He hired neighborhood locals to cover them up with pro-vaccine posters that said things like, ‘The leading rabbis of Israel have been vaccinated.’ He says the poster war lasted two weeks before his opponents gave up. Today, you have to look hard to find anti-vaccine posters in the streets.

“Despite all this work, what really helped turn the tide with many remaining skeptics was something unplanned, a funeral; 31-year-old Osnat Ben Shitrit was ultra-Orthodox and ran a wig and bridal salon. She was about to give birth to her fifth child. Osnat remained hesitant [about being vaccinated], even after doctors made up their minds and endorsed vaccines for pregnant women. Her husband Yehuda finally made her a vaccine appointment, but it was too late. She caught COVID and died. Her newborn died too.

“And so the family set the record straight in interviews to ultra Orthodox and mainstream media in Israel. They said she hadn’t been vaccinated. And if she had been, she would have survived. Avi, from the Health Ministry, saw an opportunity to get people to listen. He organized a public campaign, ‘Get vaccinated to honor Osnat’s memory.’ It sparked a wave of vaccinations. That was apparent from my visit to one Hassidic neighborhood.”

Estrin quotes Ruth Tabeeb, who he encountered pushing a new baby in a stroller. “Ruth said she hesitated [to get vaccinated] because there were a lot of rumors, but what convinced her was this ultra-Orthodox girl that died during her pregnancy and left four children without a mother. Today, more than 80% of ultra-Orthodox Israelis above the age of 30 are vaccinated or have recovered from the virus. Yehuda shows me around his new home, where he just moved with his four small children. They couldn’t bear being in their old home without mom.”

Estrin concludes: “It wasn’t the official campaign, or even the pleas by rabbis that convinced many on the fence. It took the story of a young woman who didn’t get vaccinated and who ended up in the same grave with her baby.”

A newly published study in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association found: “About 16% of symptomatic pregnant women [with COVID-19] were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), 8.5% required mechanical ventilation, and 2 died.” We now know that pregnancy greatly increases the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus.

After World War II, the brutal Soviet dictator Josef Stalin told an American journalist, “one death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.” Stalin was no Mother Teresa. According to one expert, his murderous reign directly caused 20 million deaths, many of them in the Gulag prison camps.  In context, he was referring to one American life as opposed to millions of Russian lives.

But Stalin had a point. A powerful narrative, like the sad one of Osnat Ben Shitrit, can influence hearts and change minds.

During the year of pandemic, Israeli media have been fiercely critical of the ultra-Orthodox, portraying them as super-spreaders. Their U-turn, in accepting vaccination, was not widely reported.

Perhaps we can learn a great deal from this episode, as recounted by Daniel Estrin, about how to better empathize with and understand the ultra-Orthodox, and above all, how to communicate with them.