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December 2019 The American Nurses Association (ANA) welcomes the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association (OJNA) as the latest addition to its list of organizational affiliates. This will bring the total number of ANA’s partner organizations to 38. OJNA is an organization that aims to address professional issues related to Orthodox Jewish nurses and to serve the [...]

At the end of last year, buried in a popular Google group for orthodox women in the Baltimore community, was a post informing women of an upcoming teleconference by the Akeres Habayis hotline about the measles. Adena Friedman Cohen, a school nurse from Baltimore, called in and was appalled at the misinformation being presented to concerned [...]

Back in 2000, physicians and parents sighed with relief, as measles was considered eradicated in the U.S. But that relief, unfortunately, was premature — the U.S. is currently experiencing what is likely the second-biggest outbreak of the virus since that time. So far this year, between January 1 and March 29, 387 cases of measles have been confirmed in [...]

MARCH 29, 2019   (JTA) — Rabbi Mordechai Shain isn’t sure about vaccines. Almost all of the 400 kids in the school he runs, from 3 months old to eighth-grade teens, are vaccinated. About eight or 10 are not. But he’s skeptical that immunization works at all. “My doctor in shul says everyone should take [...]

(CNN)To contain a measles outbreak, a newly infected person has to work in tandem with state and local health authorities, providing information on when their symptoms began and whom they may have exposed during the nine days they are contagious. Most people do. Then there are those who refuse. Just last week in Rockland County, [...]

For Blima Marcus and her fellow ultra-Orthodox Jewish nurses, a 40-page booklet about vaccines that’s been circulating in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg and Borough Park neighborhoods is Public Health Enemy No. 1. Called “The Vaccine Safety Handbook: A Handbook for Parents,” the magazine comes across as an official publication, cleanly designed and sporting extensive footnotes citing scientific studies. Published [...]

The Chicago Jewish Home January 31, 2019   The start of 2019 came with a new opportunity for the Orthodox nurses of Chicago. There was a gathering at the home of Raina Leon, MSN RN, to kickstart a Chicago division of the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association (OJNA). The OJNA was founded in 2008 in Maryland, [...]

The New Yorker, January 2019 Blima Marcus is an oncology nurse and a member of the ultra-Orthodox community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, where the incidence of measles has risen sharply since last fall, as it has in similar enclaves in the New York area: Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Rockland County in upstate New York; and Ocean County in New [...]

Article in Ami Living - January 2019

Listen to a short clip on the work of our vaccine task force.