An innocent walk from shul on Shabbos and a chance encounter with a good friend turned into more than I expected. Jokingly I asked if he was ready to get in line for the vaccine and his response was, “Every one of my cousins in Boro Park has already gotten it.” I asked, “Are they first responders?” “No,” he said, and I then asked whether or not they were liars and his response was slightly shocking. “Maybe,” he said. The subject was quickly changed.
I know how impatient we all are to get the vaccine. We all know that we have been placed into categories and will get the vaccine when our turn arises. Yet, Boro Park and the vaccine being given to random people did not sit well with me.
Lo and behold, that evening I turned on the news and what was the first item to be discussed? Parcare Community Healthcare Network, an obviously Jewish health and medical facility with offices in Boro Park, Williamsburg, Kiryas Yoel and Harlem, was right there in the forefront of scandal with the suspicion that they had obtained doses of the Moderna vaccine and were inoculating people who did not fit into the categories stipulated by the state. So far the state is investigating this claim and of course wondering how they received the vaccine before any other private health facility.
I sincerely hope that they are found to be innocent.
Why do I still feel the need to cringe when I see obviously Jewish people being portrayed in various newspapers as villians? Why am I so embarrassed? Is it because I am naive enough to believe that one who is Torah observant should exemplify obeying not only the laws of the Torah but the laws of the country that we live in? I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that so many feel that these laws do not apply to them.
To make matters worse, a few days later I read something that actually stung my heart much more than these events. As I browsed on Facebook there was an extremely negative comment made about Rav Hershel Schachter and Rav Mordechai Willig, insinuating that they had no right to get the vaccine before others, with a picture showing them each receiving their dose. I could not believe what I was reading. Is there no sense of kavod? Would the same comment have been made if Martin Luther King Jr. received the vaccination or, l’havdil, the Pope? Have not these rabbonim, gedolim of our generation, not been the Dr. Anthony Fauci for the Jewish world since we were first plagued by COVID? Have they not been our “first responders?” To degrade our gedolim in such a way was absolutely abhorrent.
It was obviously brought to the attention of these great men that they were recipients of the vaccine from Parcare. Both were unaware prior of any issues and, as Rav Schachter said, “We were led to believe that it was legitimate. If either of us would have been told that this was inappropriate, that it wasn’t legitimate, we would not have done that.” As Rav Schachter said, they were photographed while getting the vaccine to inspire confidence in the vaccine. Following his statement, the author of the original post repeated what Rav Schachter said, but the damage had been done.
It has reached a point where the act of proper respect to our gedolei Torah has been neglected in teaching its significance to many today. In the generation where everyone knows better than the next one I am sadly sorry to be a part of such an immoral way of thinking.
Together with everyone else I await the day when these restrictions are lifted and once again our lives return to some semblance of normalcy. Yet I fear for the future generations when it has become so easy for anyone to say whatever they wish, allowing fuel to be added to fires that in truth are nothing but lies.
Nina Glick lives in Bergenfield with her husband, Rabbi Mordechai Glick, after many years of service to the Montreal Jewish community. Nina coordinated all Yachad activities in Montreal and was a co/founder of Maison Shalom, a group home for special needs young adults. She can be reached at [email protected].
