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Bigtree's statements were condemned by the Anti-Defamation League. The Auschwitz memorial in Poland wrote on Twitter "exploiting the fate of Jews persecuted by an odious anti-Semitic ideology and murdered in extermination camps as #Auschwitz The use of poisonous gases to combat vaccination that saves human lives is a symptom of intellectual and moral degeneration. "
Listen to Gwynne Hogan's report on WNYC:
But Bigtree has been adopted by the small part of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community opposed to vaccines.
A film by Bigtree on vaccines – with the notorious British doctor Andrew Wakefield, who insinuated that the measles vaccine had caused the autism of 12 children – was cited in a first propaganda broadcast in the ultra-poor communities. Orthodox of the metropolitan area. The audio versions of Bigtree's YouTube vaccine series have been archived on the group's long-time hotline. Most recently, he was invited by an ultra-Orthodox group to hold one of his last teleconferences at the end of March.
The message of Bigtree at Austin's rally about God creating it perfectly is echoed by seemingly disparate groups of people opposed to vaccines, from ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents to liberal parents in private schools.
This is the same refrain used in an affidavit of parents of an unvaccinated Rockland County child who was not allowed to attend Green Meadow Waldorf School, a secular private school:
"We think R. was created perfectly," reads the affidavit, "and the injection of foreign substances goes against our religious beliefs."
This belief was again raised last week in South Williamsburg, where a small group of women opposed to vaccines spoke to reporters after the city announced a mandatory vaccination rule in some postal codes where the epidemic of measles was in progress.
"God has designed a perfect design," said Gitty, a young mother. "He designed my child – he is amazing – he designed my child as perfect as possible."
Nevertheless, most of the main rabbinic authorities have shown their support for vaccination.
"It is outright dishonest to officially certify that Jewish law prohibits vaccination," wrote Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt of the United States Rabbinical Alliance in a recent open letter.
Bigtree is not the only figure on the national anti-vaccination circuit to focus on the ultra-Orthodox community in New York. Barbara Loe Fisher, who heads the National Vaccine Information Center, is quoted as a researcher in a handbook on the dangers of vaccines for the ultra-Orthodox community.
And Monday, lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the Kennedy political dynasty sued the city of New York on behalf of parents of five unvaccinated children. Kennedy has been criticizing vaccines for years and recently joined Bigtree in California against a bill that would place additional restrictions on doctors who subscribe to medical exemptions for vaccines to fight fraudulent exemptions.
Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine and the Vaccine Development Center at Texas Children's Hospital, has been following the anti-vaccine movement closely. Hotez reports a measles outbreak in 2017 in a Somali community in Minnesota, where Wakefield has been invited to speak to concerned parents several times by anti-vaccination activists who feared the measles vaccine would cause the disease. Autism, according to a Washington Post report. During this epidemic, 65 people got measles.
Hotez sees what is happening in New York as a progression of these efforts.
"It's predatory behavior aimed specifically at Jews and Jewish children," Hotez said. "The anti-vaccine movement is now very opportunistic. They will identify groups where they think they can make progress in stopping vaccinations; and then are very predatory and unfortunately … they have now chosen to target the Orthodox Jewish community. "
Bigtree, however, denied that his work with the ultra-orthodox Jewish community was predatory. He admitted to making a film with Wakefield, but said that they were not working together day-to-day.
"How is the truth predatory?" Said Bigtree. "I think it's my duty, as a journalist, to tell people the truth, instead of hiding it."
There have been 465 cases of measles across the country so far this year. About 84% of them lived in the ultra-Orthodox communities of New York and Rockland County, where at least 21 people were hospitalized and 9 needed intensive care. Of those who have caught measles, the vast majority have not been vaccinated.
Correction: This message has been updated to reflect the fact that Dr. Peter Hoetz is a vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine, not Baylor College, and that "most of the major rabbinic authorities have intervened in favor of vaccination ", and not all major rabbinic authorities. "
Gwynne Hogan is an associate producer at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @GwynneFitz.
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