Docile conduit for government disinformation? Religious leader ignores Frontline News query

A prominent rabbi and Jewish court judge is ignoring questions submitted to him by America’s Frontline News regarding remarks he made last year placing the decision to vaccinate entirely with what he called “the majority of doctors” and forbidding independent research. 

While Crown Heights Rabbinical Court member Rabbi Yosef Braun said he is “not going to give an answer whether one should vaccinate or not,” he maintained that “you are not an expert – you are not the one to decide . . . to vaccinate or not.”

As member of the Crown Heights Beth Din (rabbinical court), Rabbi Braun is considered by the community to be among its chief rabbis. 

“You are not entitled to your opinion when it comes to medical matters!” claimed Rabbi Braun.  

Rabbi Braun is a member of the chassidic “Chabad-Lubavitch” community, whose ranks were decimated when Soviet health authorities - comprising physicians, some Jewish, some not - closed down and penalized Jewish life for “health reasons”, and thousands of chassidim who defied policy were tortured and died in Siberia.

It is unclear whether the rabbi believes that those chassidim were criminals who deserved their fate for having endangered public health, but his public comments may indicate a willingness to subordinate Torah law to government edict.

“[T]he Torah says to go with the majority when it comes to medical and halacha issues,” he added, then appearing to say that the majority advocate injection with the COVID-19 shots. “You can find . . . a sole minority lone opinion – which has been disqualified in mainstream halacha and rejected . . . but the majority of doctors who have licenses say one thing.” 

America’s Frontline News reached out to Rabbi Braun with questions on his remarks:

You said that “the majority of doctors who have licenses say one thing.”    

• How is that determined? Is it based on polls of physicians? If so, is it restricted to only physicians in relevant fields (e.g., epidemiology) or all physicians (e.g., psychiatrists)? Would Jewish law accept a poll conducted by mainstream media, or would it require certain criteria?
• According to scientific findings, medical professionals who question the COVID-19 vaccine have been threatened and punished in various ways, and also incentivized for recommending the vaccine. Does this have any impact on what is considered “the majority”?
• If a doctor who recommends the COVID-19 injection will keep his job, and a doctor who recommends against it knows he will lose his job, should that be a consideration in choosing which doctor to listen to?
• When social media platforms, where doctors often publish their opinions and findings, admit to censoring any dissenting medical opinion, should that cast doubt on what “the majority” of doctors say?
• If there were a group of the top doctors in the world – such as the inventor of the mRNA vaccine, the most published cardiologist in the world, and the top epidemiologists in the world, for example – and they recommended not taking the COVID-19 vaccine, should their advice be heeded?
• What would the Torah advise when “the majority” say one thing, and a person’s personal physician says the opposite? 

You appear to suggest that Torah's view is people should not follow a “sole minority lone opinion.”    

• Does that still apply if the opinion belongs to a person’s personal physician? 

In your remarks, you said the following: “People think they have to research and check out every single thing…it’s not your job to research this stuff. When did you become a doctor? When did that become your responsibility?”    

• The laws and medical guidance surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine were set by governments and handed down to the masses. It has become known that these governments – led in part by the United States – have consistently lied and withheld vital information regarding the vaccine.

Using the U.S. government as an example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently admitted to failing to monitor the vaccine’s safety as it had promised.

The CDC admitted earlier this year to withholding large portions of data on the booster shots - specifically, how the boosters affect young, healthy people – because it didn’t believe the public could interpret the data.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted to deliberately misleading the public regarding COVID-19 guidance.

A report by Frontline News revealed that the CDC did not, in fact, have any data regarding COVID-related child deaths, despite saying otherwise on its website. The CDC has since deleted the false data following the report. 

The CDC also came under fire for falsely adding 72,000 deaths - including 416 child deaths - to its COVID-19 death count, which the center said was a “coding error”.

There are several more examples – but when a government is found to lie repeatedly about health, does it ever become a person’s responsibility to research its guidance, particularly when some doctors blindly follow that guidance in order to keep their jobs? 

• What is your opinion on rabbis who directly urged their congregants to get the vaccine, without just leaving it to each person and their personal physician? 

Given scientific evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are directly correlated to an alarming increase in cardiac events among healthy people:   

• Should those leaders and doctors who insisted people take the injections continue to be trusted? 
• Can those leaders and doctors who assured their congregants and patients that the vaccine was safe be held accountable in any way, according to Torah law?  

Rabbi Braun has not responded to Frontline News' query.