Rabbi Yitzchak Yehuda Yaroslavsky, the highest-ranking Chabad Lubavitch rabbi in Israel, the secretary of the Chabad rabbinical court, and the rabbi of the Nachalat Har Chabad neighborhood of Kiryat Malachi, has issued an urgent letter to local residents due to a concerning spread of measles in the area.
In his letter, he warned of a "tangible danger to children’s lives" and called on parents to vaccinate their children immediately.
Rabbi Yaroslavsky referenced the situation in the United States, where the disease is spreading as part of a widescale outbreak. According to the data he cited, more than 1,000 children have been hospitalized, some requiring ECMO ventilation due to severe complications.
He also pointed to the past year, during which 17 children, 16 of whom had been previously healthy, died after contracting the disease; all of them were unvaccinated.
"Morbidity in the neighborhood has increased," he wrote, noting that some local children have already been hospitalized with symptoms. According to him, infections have spread rapidly, including cases of mass exposure in shelters and shared spaces, increasing community risk.
Rabbi Yaroslavsky also stressed that vaccination as a "halakhic obligation" (obligation under Jewish law - ed.) under the principle of "you shall greatly guard your lives."
"This is a matter of saving lives," he wrote, urging parents to take advantage of designated community vaccination days.
He concluded by emphasizing that a vaccinated child not only protects himself but also prevents the spread of the disease to others, thereby fulfilling the commandment of "your brother shall live with you."