In a sickening display of bigotry and hate towards Orthodox Jews, NYS Senator James Skoufis went on disgusting tear against all religious Jews in New York after a single Jewish person in Ramapo, Rockland County became infected with polio.
In a statement, Skoufis said he is “calling on the Department of Health to… bring the full force of the law down on those who have skirted… [vaccine] requirements.”
“Some Ramapo yeshivas in Rockland County have a history of non-compliance with the state’s vaccine laws; proactive additional enforcement is required in light of today’s news,” Skoufis wrote.
The senator’s comments placing a bulls-eye on the back of every Jew in the state is made only more sickening by the fact that Skoufis expressed no sympathy, condemnation, or even comment after multiple Jews were attacked in recent days in Rockland County.
“There is no data to back the claim that mandated vaccination rates are worse among Orthodox Jews than in other places,” Yossi Gestetner, the co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC) told YWN in a statement. “However, even if it were true, it’s disgusting to release a statement that slams a whole community for the shortcomings of a few.”
“Besides,” Gestetner’s statement continues, “if there is an issue of under-vaccination, then a collaborative effort between government and community is needed – not an adversarial stance. Additionally, just days ago, multiple Orthodox Jews in Rockland County were pelted with projectiles by out-of-area teens. Mr. Skoufis didn’t sound off about it and he sure didn’t blame an entire community for it. It’s very possible that past inflammatory comments and content may have caused those older teens to think that it will be ‘fun’ to travel 15 minutes to attack Orthodox Jews.”
Skoufis has since deleted his statement, but the damage he has wrought – and his stance toward the Jewish community – has already been made clear.
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38 Responses
It looks like this Dummycrat represents quite a number of the Shomer Shabbos crowd in Orange County. Let’s hope and pray he loses his re-election!
Unfortunately with the way inzireh tipshim vote, he’ll probably win by a landslide.
Much of what he is saying is not entirely untrue.
BORO PARK YIDDEN.
This radical mindset of forced vax on everyone can likely be the mindset of your next Congress representative of Borough Park, We have 14, Yes fourteen extreme left radicals (and 1 common sense Pro Frum moderate, named Brian Robinson) running to represent Borough Park.
There is option this time of
“Let’s settle with the least evil candidate”
Because they will Not have Boro Park’s interest in anyway, shape or form.
Be practical, Make noise from 13th to 18th Aves that Borough Park should go with Pro Israel/Yeshiva/Police moderate common sense Jewish Congress candidate #NY10 who is AGAINST ALL mandates, Brian Robinson (@VoteBrian on Twitter)
Yup. Typical democrat politician. The party of civility.
Why is it always the Jews? How does this make sense that patient zero is always a Jew. Strange
Apparently – per news reports, the individual received the polio vaccine albeit orally, which it seems is no longer done in the US. So this is not a pro vs anti vaccine issue.
I ASSUME HE’S A DEMOCRAT? THE ARTICLE DIDN’T MENTION.
,No vaccinations? You now violate state law, Halacha, basic science and get into the news papers. Stop ruining it for the rest of us.
History is repeating itself with this discovery of James Skoufis anti Jewish rethoric . It is our obligation to remember to do justice when the time of voting arrives.
R E M E M B E R ! ! !
In the past, unfortunately, alot of Anti-Semitism was fueled by the anti Jewish rethoric of the previous New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio and the previous New York governor Andrew Coumo , when they blamed on the media in front of millions of people , that our entire Jewish communities are ignoring their Covid rules. While at the same time they were encouraging “Black Live Matters” protests, that were far more breaking of the law.
But, New Yorkers remembered to END their political carriers, a payback for the injustice, and the damage done, by their hate spewing words and actions.
It’s scary how rabidly anti-semitic the democrat party is. If they had their way you would not be able to live in in peace as a frum Jew in this country.
His comments are practical not antisemitic. If the outbreak came in this community it’s because they aren’t following the laws and they are not only putting themselves at risk but they are putting millions others. We need to do better.
May this reck of a faxed human rot in hades
It’s aisav Soneh Lyakov
Not his fault.
Umm . .. I know that it hurts to hear it, but was his statement not accurate?
Isn’t he correct that this could only have happened within a school system that was not complying with vaccination requirements?
Given the culture of vaccination suspicion and school cooperation, how would change be effected by anything other than “the full force of the law”?
James skoufis is a democrat from queens, please keep that in mind when voting in the future
Sorry, Orange County
He’ll apologize , everything will go back to normal …but we see the “Wolf in sheep’s clothing ” !!!!
Do we know vaccination rates for the Jewish community? If he is right on facts, then he is in his right say that and hopefully his message will save some Jews from getting sick. If he is wrong, just show him the numbers and ask for an apology
Well, if those 2 misfits named zalman leib and aaron keep telling their sheep to vote democrat, this is what you get. So sad that these people arent smart enough to vote for who they want; they have to vote for what the chief dictators tell them.
Isn’t it a bit more than ironic that the polio vaccine was invented by none other than Jonas Salk, a Jew. If not for him many of the Senator’s relatives would’ve contracted polio.
Nothing he says is anti Semitic and is true. There is a significant portion of the community that doesn’t immunize. They endanger the health of their children and the community at large. Perhaps they should take ושמרתם את נפשתכם מאד and לא תעמוד על דם ריעך much more seriously.
These anti vaxxers. I remember clips of women on Lee Av trying to explain themselves to the media. What a mega chilul HaShem that was. If their stupidity only affects themselves, that’s also wrong. When their stupid thinking can become a public danger……where are the Gestetners????
“Attacks ALL Jews”?! “disgusting tear against all religious Jews in New York”?! “a bulls-eye on the back of every Jew in the state”?! “slams a whole community”?!
What on earth are you talking about? All he said was “SOME RAMAPO YESHIVAS”. That is all. How does that translate into an attack on all Jews, or all religious Jews in the state?
Nor did he “claim that mandated vaccination rates are worse among Orthodox Jews than in other places”. They surely are not. He simply pointed out the truth that everyone knows, that SOME RAMAPO YESHIVAS are laxer about these things than they should be, and that is where this one case happened to appear. Those yeshivas need to be addressed and their compliance needs to be improved. That is all.
Of course other places where compliance is lax need to be strengthened as well, if they can be identified. But how is that to be done? The one place we know to look is where this happened.
Much as it galls me to defend a Democrat, I see nothing wrong in what Skoufis said. I still urge people to vote for his Republican challenger in November.
To Sara Rifka: “Hades” is the ancient Greek word for Hell. Why would a frum Jew use it?
As for the article: The article does not report that State Senator Skoufis made comments about all Jews in New York State, or even all Jews in Rockland County. According to the article, his comments were limited to some Yeshivas in Rockland County. I do not know whether his comments were true or false, and the article cites only one source, Yossi Gestetner of Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, that it is true, but that same source repeats the mistake that Skoufis smeared all Jews, and then leaves open the possibility that it might be true.
I don’t like the comments, but they must be accurately reported, and the article, and especially the headline, appears to be inaccurate.
Yeah, well he has a point regardless of the unvaccinated group’s religious affiliation
By the way, this doesn’t HAVE to be because of laxity in vaccines. No vaccine is 100% effective, so even if we had a 100% vaccination rate (which for polio we should have) a single case could still happen just by bad luck. (“Luck” is the name we give to hashgacha pratis as it operates in a time of hester panim; but perhaps the lesson Hashem wants to give us with this one case is to improve our vaccination rate.)
PS: None of this is an endorsement of the Wuhan “vaccine”, which is in an entirely different category from the long-accepted and thoroughly tested standard vaccine regimen, such as polio and MMR.
Further details have been revealed that it’s an unvaccinated 20-yr-old man who had traveled to Poland and Hungary.
NYS has had a Polio vaccine mandate for school students for more than 50 years.
This 20-yr-old would have to have been in multiple schools since then, all of whom allowed him to attend despite not being vaccinated.
So why would it not be accurate to say that it’s not about one person, but about a SYSTEM that allows this to happen?
Are there other SYSTEMS in NYS, other than yeshivos, that work together to bypass vaccination requirements?
It may not be nice but he said the truth, there is a growing population who do not want to vaccinate their kids at all, I’m talking about the basic vaccines not COVID. We all know what schools these kids go to and they are the same who do not report to the state.
This reminds me of the fellow who was stopped by a cop for speeding, and accused the cop of stopping him because he is an anti-semite.
The truth is we should stop attacking everyone who criticizes anyone Jewish. Mr. Gesttetner is as usual defending the Monsey Hasidic community with lies.
Everyone knows the fact that the Monsey community is under vaccinated and is a hotbed for anti- vaxers. We don’t need official data just go in any Beis Medrash and have shmooze with people and you will get the picture.
In fact the anti- vaxers opened a new school entirely on the foundation of anti- vaxing. No one is required to vaccinate. This is all common knowledge for anyone in the Monsey community. So when the senator says “some Ramapo Yeshivos have a history of non- compliance” he is 100% accurate. All Yossi Gestetner can do in defence of this irresposible behavior is attack with accuusations of anti-semitism.
The anti -vaxers in monsey are indeed endangering everyone with their stuborn ignorant behavior. We should stop sweeping all criticism of Hasidic Jews under the rug.
My friends, THIS will be your Borough Park Congressman or Congresswoman’s mindset in Borough Park in 2 months if you don’t get active enough & get involved.
There are 14 Radical BDS Anti Israel, Pro crime police abolitionist socialist running for Borough Park & they will just love to Mandate All Vax’s & target all BP that is not vaxed for anything.
This is a call to action!
There is only 1 candidate that is on our side,
The ONLY 100% Pro Israel candidate in this #NY10 Congress race is Brian Robinson (@VoteBrian on Twitter)
Brian Robinson is Jewish & attends Chabad in lower Manhattan.
He fully Supports Israel / Yeshivas / Police.
He is against ALL mandates.
He shares our Frum values.
Get involved, Google Brian Robinson Congress, Tell your “Askonim” about him.
Let’s IYH help him win!
@TheRock, how dare you speak this way?
I am not Satmar in any way (I actually belong to a Jewish sect that is ideologically opposed to Satmar), yet it is unacceptable to speak this way about Yidden who are considered holy by tens of thousands of Jews.
And for what reason? Because of your personal POLITICAL beliefs!?
And in the 3 weeks no less?
You should be ashamed of yourself and make a public apology.
I really don’t have much to add to what milhouse wrote. This politician spoke the truth and if we don’t listen to him as quickly as possible the chesed fund will soon be full of sad looking families in wheelchairs looking for handouts.
Blame the person’s parents for not getting him vaccinated. It’s been proven that the polio vaccine works, yet there are still idiots who argue against it.
Measles, Covid, now polio. Statistical chance that its always the Frum community by coincidence is 0. So easy to say antisemite. For a people that rightfully consider themselves intelligent and rational, we insist on conspiracy theories. How is it that we know better then billions of dollars of research and the most educated intelligent researchers of science.
Is there a secret pact signed off by all researchers in all countries and all governments (that other than this secret pact cant agree on anything) and all members of world health organizations that swear them to secrecy, virtually all doctors, etc. that have agreed to destroy civilization with their evil vaccines. Those vaccines appear to help eradicate disease, but don’t be fooled. The scientific scholars of Lakewood and their ilk in their collective research clearly know better. Get your tin foil hats ready now. Save yourselves.
This is Click bait. I support this senator. He said what needed to be said.
@TheRock
Such audacity on your part! Are you a frum Jew?! How is any frum Jew not petrified to utter words like yours? Chutzpah! Reb Moshe Feinstein ZT’L said that when one sees someone has a very large following, it shows that he is respected in shamayim, in the heavens. As such, one should be very careful when speaking of such people. You have sheer chutzpah speaking like this of people WAY above you lowly being.
And mind you; I am not a chosid, certainly not a Satmar chosid.
This senator should be applauded for calling out these anti vaxxer quacks. We saw what happened with the measles outbreak Hashem yerachem if this G-D forbid this isn’t an isolated incident
We must stand behind those now seeking to overturn the repeal of the children’s vaccine exemption in NYS and elsewhere. Informed consent is the only way – for people of all ages.