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In January, before a measles outbreak spread in New York's haredi neighborhoods, Channie Klor booked a pascal stay at a Pennsylvania hotel for her family of seven.
Four months later, more than 500 cases of the disease spread throughout the United States during an epidemic linked to orthodox Jews, particularly infected unvaccinated hasidim. And the disease is very contagious: a single Israeli traveler haredi, who would have traveled to Michigan via New York, spread the disease to 39 people after a misdiagnosis.
This left Klor with a dilemma: stay home, vaccinate her baby at least 8 months earlier in the recommended range for vaccination or stay away from public places for the duration of her stay at the school. hotel.
It is a calculation made by tens of thousands of Jewish clerics who will fill hotels for Passover, dine and mingle nearby for eight days.
This year, program organizers in the metropolitan area of New York are trying to make sure their clients do not carry the disease. None who spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency said they were asking for vaccine registers. But some said they asked their guests to be vaccinated before arriving at the hotel.
"We warned everyone that if they did not shoot, they would not be able to come to our hotel," said Rabbi Motty Katz, Katz Pesach program manager at Long Island Hilton in Huntington, 39, State of New York. "We are going to be very strict about this. … If you do not shoot, do not go to a public place. "
Rabbi Yitzchok Neger, a Passover Program Manager at the Wyndham Golf Resort in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said he was "rather convinced that we have no viruses or any contagious situation where we are, with our guests . "
Most of its 1,300 guests are not hasidim.
"Our guests do not come from any of the Hasidic communities, so other communities are very supportive," he said, suggesting that vaccination is more common in non-Aidsic Orthodox communities. "A large part of our people come from places where the rabbis sent a letter to everyone asking them to get vaccinated. Some of the shuls here had free clinics. "
Every year, kosher caterers and tourism companies rent entire hotels for their holidays, providing meals, religious services, classes and entertainment. More than 100,000 Jews around the world, mostly haredi, will be celebrating their holidays at a Passover hotel, according to Raphi Bloom, founder of TotallyJewishTravel.com, a website that serves as an exchange center for holiday bookings. for the Passover.
The measles outbreak has been linked to low vaccination rates. Jane Zucker, Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Bureau of Immunization, said that the highest rate of vaccination coverage in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was one of the lowest in immunization among young children .
Agudath Israel of America, which represents Haredi Jews, insists that the vaccination rates of Orthodox neighborhoods are equivalent to those of "many other municipalities", but that their communities may be more vulnerable for other reasons: its members frequently travel to overseas social networks, as well as many children at the ages most exposed to the disease.
Asking customers not to come in and they are not immune is the best approach for hotels to get closer to their holidays, said L & # 39; via Weisinger, member of Emes, l & # 39; Hebrew for "truth", a new group of orthodox nurses who encourages vaccination. If Weisinger had theoretically been able to set up a policy in a hotel, she would have asked each guest to be vaccinated and then checked her vaccination record at the door.
"As a citizen, you do not have the right to go to a hotel in Pesach," she said. "It's private, so if they say," Unless you're vaccinated, you're not welcome, "there's nothing wrong with that. Here is your money back. It does not matter. "
"With people from all communities, all programs and all places, it's like [opening] a feather pillow [and] gather all these feathers back. "
In the end, Klor decided to give his baby an early MMR vaccine. In total, approximately 30 members of his extended family will spend Passover at Wyndham Golf Resort. If she had not been able to vaccinate her children, she said, Klor would have spent the holidays keeping them away from public areas of the hotel.
"For a moment, I thought we might have to rent a house instead," said Klor, a nurse practitioner from South Bend, Indiana. "He is premature, so I protect him a bit more. If I could not get this vaccine, I probably would have ended up going there, but I would be extremely worried all the time. "
Even outside the Passover hotel industry, vacations bring people to gather in airplanes, synagogues, and shops. A collection of clothes before Passover in Baltimore forced those present to sign a legal vaccination waiver. Klor said that at South Bend, people were hurrying to get vaccinated before the holidays.
"I am angry to have to voluntarily submit to more pain than necessary because I want to protect him from measles," wrote Klor on Facebook, referring to his baby. "When you choose to vaccinate, it's more than you, it's a disinterested decision that protects our most vulnerable population."
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