The Jewish Chronicle reports:
At the urging of 28 area physicians, Pittsburgh’s three Jewish day schools have all enacted vaccination policies stricter than those mandated by the state.
Community Day School, Hillel Academy and Yeshiva Schools now do not recognize the right to an exemption from immunization based on religious or philosophical grounds.
The new standards were set forth in a letter from the physicians to area Jewish schools last spring. They proposed that vaccination — with certain medical exceptions — should be mandated by Jewish schools as “an active step toward … fulfilling the mitzvah to preserve health.”
While many herald the policy as being in accord with Jewish law and principles, others see it as infringing on individual freedoms, and valuing the welfare of the many over the rights of the few.
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