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(JTA) — Who’re the rabbis writing non secular exemption letters for Jews (and others) who oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates?
One reply got here this week when a New York Metropolis trainer mentioned she’d gotten a letter from a rabbi who was penalized by Chabad for his anti-vaccination rhetoric.
One other reply got here Thursday in a Miami New Occasions report a couple of native rabbi and YouTuber with a historical past of taking fringe positions. The rabbi, Asher Meza, says he signed 200 letters within the final week and a half giving individuals a spiritual excuse for sidestepping office vaccine mandates — despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Jewish clergy say there isn’t a foundation for such an exemption in Jewish custom.
Contacted by the Jewish Telegraphic Company, Meza mentioned he personally has been vaccinated towards COVID-19, however he doesn’t consider others must be pressured to. The letter, which 4 different rabbis from Florida and New York additionally signed, cites a number of Biblical passages to help the argument that vaccination “places us in direct battle with biblical mandates to protect one’s personal life.”
“[We’re] simply permitting individuals to specific themselves formally,” Meza mentioned. “We’re simply articulating what individuals already consider. We’re not placing phrases of their mouth. The shape is fairly generic. We’re not anti-vaxxers.”
The letter places Meza and his co-signers in battle with the overwhelming majority of rabbis, throughout denominations, who’ve urged their congregants and followers to get the vaccine. Public service bulletins urging vaccination by greater than 20 Orthodox rabbis in Baltimore and Lengthy Island went viral in August.
As an alternative, it places him in keeping with a small variety of Haredi Orthodox rabbis who’ve taken stands towards vaccination. These rabbis have fueled a view — held devotedly by a minority of Orthodox Jews, together with largely right-wing vaccine critics from different backgrounds — that the vaccines are harmful and that different therapies which were discredited by the medical institution are preferable.
Meza — who says he studied in Israel, did Jewish outreach work there, and obtained non secular ordination from a rabbi who now lives in New York — has lengthy defied non secular norms, and in addition and allied himself with the American far-right.
Arguing that the conversion course of supplied by mainstream Orthodox our bodies is extra stringent than what foundational Jewish authorized authorities describe, he presents a fast-track conversion course that features listening to his podcast. He brazenly proselytizes and is planning journeys to India and the Philippines to transform college students there.
Meza has additionally gotten concerned with the Proud Boys, the far-right group with hyperlinks to antisemitic teams on the middle of a number of violent protests lately. He mentioned he had labored on web sites for the group and donated to it, and on Telegram, the safe messaging website widespread with far-right activists, he goes by “Rabbi PB.”
On this September 7, 2020, file picture, a protester carries a Proud Boys banner, a right-wing group, whereas different members begin to unfurl a big US flag in entrance of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Oregon. (AP Picture/Andrew Selsky, File)
That’s the place the Miami New Occasions discovered Meza promoting his exemption letter, which he says he has signed for Jews and non-Jews alike below the auspices of his personal group, known as Torah Judaism Worldwide. He additionally marketed the letter on Fb and YouTube. He doesn’t know whether or not the letters have been efficient in sidestepping mandates.
An area Orthodox rabbi who mentioned he’s unvaccinated and in addition mentioned he was once pleasant with Meza instructed the New Occasions that Meza was “a hack” who’s “not acknowledged by any non secular neighborhood that I do know of.”
For his half, Meza instructed JTA that he’s a Proud Boys supporter, however mentioned he considers himself first a loyal Orthodox Jew.
“Ideologically, I suppose there’s no distinction between supporting the motion and being within the motion itself,” he mentioned of the Proud Boys. “However I think about myself extra a scholar of Torah and a household man, and I’m not out to harm individuals.”
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