Hundreds of Strictly Orthodox Jews in New York state attended a rally this week to oppose an official measles vaccination programme, branding it an effort to persecute them.
The meeting in Monsey, a town in Rockland County northwest of New York City, was addressed by leaders of the anti-vaccination movement including Andrew Wakefield, the author of a study linking measles vaccines with autism has been widely discredited.
Mr Wakefield, whose medical licence was revoked over the report, spoke via Skype.
Authorities in the county declared a state of emergency earlier this year to combat an outbreak mainly affecting the Strictly Orthodox population. The order banned unvaccinated children from public spaces such schools, shopping centres and synagogues.
But Rabbi Hillel Handler, 77, a Holocaust survivor from Brooklyn, claimed on Monday that Jews were being persecuted as “disease carriers” and being attacked for simply sneezing.
“We Chasidim have been chosen as the target. The campaign against us has been successful,” he said. He also attacked New York mayor Bill de Blasio, who declared a separate public health emergency in Brooklyn, claiming the mayor’s real name was “Wilhelm” and that he was named after the monarch who led Germany until after the First World War.
Later in the meeting, pediatrician Lawrence Palevsky told the audience that measles vaccines were in fact producing a new strain of the disease.
But both Rabbi Handler and Dr Palevsky’s claims were untrue, the New York Times reported.
In London, a measles outbreak in the Strictly Orthodox community late last year led to more than 500 children receiving emergency vaccinations.
The outbreak in Stamford Hill, believed to have been triggered by carriers returning from Israel, prompted the Federation Beis Din to declare that “everyone who is healthy enough to be vaccinated must do so, and must vaccinate their children too”.
Politicians in Israel have proposed stricter penalties for parents who fail to vaccinate their children.
This article was amended on May 16 to make clear Andrew Wakefield is no longer a doctor because his licence to practice medicine has been revoked.
