An Open Letter from the Community About Some Not-So-Glatt Updates

•Click here to view Rabbi Dr Glatt's motzei Shabbos Sept 26 Zoomcast.

•Click here for Rabbi Dr. Glatt's latest statement (Thursday Sept 24).

•Click here for a follow-up statement by the authors of this Open Letter.

•Facebook poster of anti-Glatt letter asks mechilah.

Dear Rabbi Dr. Glatt,

All of your efforts on behalf of this community in the past and present are appreciated. The fact that you genuinely care is beautiful. However, despite the adoration of your cult following, there is a huge segment of the community that is extremely disappointed in you. And while you have used your platform to send out weekly updates for over 6 months, it is time for us, the community, to get a chance to respond, both to your most recent update and to many of the things you have alleged over that timeframe.

Until now you have been able to attack your detractors as extreme and/or evil because they include, within their rhetoric about you, conspiracy-theory-like allegations relating to hydroxy, anti-masking and anti-vaxxing. You even decried some popular critics of yours as espousing "rishus (evil)" for saying anything against mask usage.

Well this letter intends to stick to facts and avoid any extreme positions. We will keep it simple but as thorough as possible.

We are upset because you only seem to care about Covid itself and the elderly and vulnerable. Much the same way that Fauci espouses policy based upon Covid public health alone, you too seem to ignore many aspects of the effects of Covid and government lockdowns on our lives.

What about the students of Darchei and TAG sent home by your beloved pals at the DOH? Chinuch is decimated yet again as schools in our community are shuttered while gyms are open and protests in the streets are greenlighted. What about things like suicidality, depression, Shalom Bayis, mental health, parnassah, physical health, and so much more? Yes NONE of us want another grandparent or parent or relative to die. But are we evil because we also don't want to see a 14-year-old boy spiral in his Judaism, a couple get divorced, a father lose his job, and worse? These aren't just financial costs: there are LIVES at risk on both sides of the ledger. Public policy was always supposed to take BOTH sides of the equation into account. Not just death counts and positivity rates.

You sent out a letter with 100 doctors as signatories alleging that since we trust you with our health, we should trust you on masking and other things. Why in the world should we trust what our podiatrist has to say about masks? At the beginning of the lockdown, it was beautiful when we got community letters from 50+ Rabbanim -- everyone was on the same page! However, as soon as those lockdowns started to lift, the community and our Rabbanim fractured and we no longer have Rabbinic unanimous agreement; instead, we have your list of podiatrists, dentists, and OBGYNs providing their tokenistic virtue-signaling.

SCHOOL CLOSINGS

The DOH, de Blasio, and Cuomo have been using the threat of school closures and further lockdowns to keep us at bay. Now the media attribute the uptick to frum Jews. Sadly, you also blame us! Our schools are open. Public schools are shut. OF COURSE we are seeing an uptick of Jewish children with Covid while the uptick is less pronounced among non-Jews. Our culture is also more centered around communal shul, school, etc making us more susceptible in some ways than the average person who can stay home and live on UberEats and Netflix.

The question is if you value our children and their chinuch at all or if the only thing that matters is the risk of death to our elderly. Should 5-year olds never learn to read? Six-year olds never learn to daven? Should teen boys and girls hang out together in the streets? Do parents stay home from work and sink their finances or leave their children home alone? Please don't pretend that Zoom is a viable option during the Fall when bowling, pizza, and more are open.

Now should be your moment of truth. 4,000 Jewish children have been sent home by YOUR beloved DOH. They have proven themselves to be frauds as their contract tracers don't trace; they simply tell everyone that they were exposed, thus attempting to force us to stay home for two weeks. They claim, like perhaps you would, that this is for public health and "the greater good". The tactics are transparent. They are blackmailing our schools into compliance and you are complicit in this. We all want a safe community. But we also need chinuch. Is Torah not life? Baruch Hashem children are not at risk in the same way that the elderly are. There IS a way to balance the needs of our young with the needs of our elderly.

Sadly, you would rather allege that schools must not be following the rules properly. And parents must not be following the rules. Sadly, even when we follow the rules, some positives are inevitable in a yeshiva of thousands of children. Are any of these children deathly ill? Can you find even one grandmother hospitalized because her grandchild went to Pre1a this week?

"Massering" — Your Role in This Atrocity

Jews are ratting out other Jews constantly despite that being one of the worst aveiros a Jew can commit against another Jew. Neighbors, local stores, shuls. Everyone is a potential target. Because of your righteous insistence on the protocols you espouse and your insistence that the DOH is an ally, you have played a massive role in one of the worst calamities to befall our community. The fire marshals are disgusted by us already: they don't understand why one Jew would rat out another.

You have 1,000+ cultish fans who closely follow your videos and updates. Your diatribes against simchos, kiddushes, and non-mask-wearers provides tacit approval for your "fans" who witness a questionable incident to report it to the authorities. In all of your updates, you have never suggested that people who observe something problematic should bring it up with the person or their Rabbi. There are stores, schools and businesses in this community who have had THEIR OWN customers or parents call the authorities and report violations or questionable actions or sometimes even legally-allowed actions they simply didn't like. These reports were made without even first complaining to the business or school to ask them to fix whatever the alleged issue was!! Some of that is people's own paranoia and overzealousness, but some of that falls squarely on your shoulders. You have not criticized this practice even once.

HALACHA

Why don't we Jews forbid driving like the Amish do? Or why don't we Jews only allow driving up to 30 MPH? "We could save one life!!" The answer, of course, is that halacha is nuanced and isn't black and white. Halacha accounts for the necessity of living life in a reasonable manner and understands that some level of risk-taking is inherent every time we walk out of our front door. Yet you never seem to distinguish in your updates between the policies that should be in place for a 90 year old versus a 9 year old. You use the nasty trick of alleging that every 9 year old could kill grandma and therefore the 9 year old has to restrict their lives in almost the same way as the 90 year old!

You quote Rav Schachter or Rav Willig at times, but it feels like the bulk of your opinions and advice are strictly from a (Fauci-like) public health perspective only. That isn't the only threat to our community and sadly it feels like the community has been thrown upside down: rather than rely on our Rabbanim to be our guides and our advisors, the power has been abdicated to you and communal and individual decisions are made in the name of public health, rather than based on halacha and with the big picture in mind. Is the CDC and the DOH our new poskim??

FRACTURING COMMUNITY

Our community is sadly more fractured than ever. The fault lines appear in many different areas. Young vs. Old. Modern Orthodox vs "Yeshivish". Republican vs. Democrat. Maskers vs. Anti-maskers. We are seeing families, congregations, and schools destroyed by the disagreements. You attempt to provide a single, authoritative opinion but your updates end up enabling some terrible behavior. You fuel people's paranoia and convince them that there is only one proper response to Covid. You allow for no nuance, no flexibility.

MASKING

Sadly, the area that is your biggest pet peeve, is the scariest example of all of the harm that you can do in the name of righteousness. You yourself write this week that Israel has a rate of Covid 3.5x worse than the US which you posit is one of the worst countries since 20% of the world's deaths are in the US. But Israel FINES those who don't wear masks! They should be covid-free or well on their way to zero covid cases! The fact is that there is no magical country on planet earth where masking has miraculously rid them of covid.

Here is a vitally important thought exercise:

Let's agree fully with your supposition that well-worn, constantly-worn, masks work wonders. [P.S. Every week you have a different update about which masks DO work, including this week when you backtracked and said that face shields do basically nothing.] Do we really believe that even the most well-meaning of people never accidentally let their guard down? Or mis-wear it? Or that people at work or in school for eight hours straight can’t possibly be perfect for the full 8 hours? Or maybe the science and studies will change again and you will tell us about another type of mask that is no longer as reliable as originally thought. The CDC and you have both waffled or been inconsistent on neck gaiters, masks with filters, face shields, cloth masks vs. surgical masks, and so much more.

So when you accuse anti-maskers of "rishus (evil)" for endangering lives, have you realized the scariest element of this entire letter?? Your insistence that masks magically save lives, EVEN IF 100% TRUE, ends up endangering lives far more! Here is why: the only way for a vulnerable or elderly person to truly ensure they won't contract Covid is to STAY HOME and never approach another person or live with anyone else who is still going out. But any listener of yours knows that simply throwing on a mask means that even if they are 80 years old, they can still go for a manicure, take a car service, or spend time with family as long as everyone wears a mask! Many of the people following that plan HAVE CONTRACTED COVID while out with a mask. Israel mandates masks and still has major Covid issues.

Plus the masking protocols have empowered people to act on some of their worst traits. Why is it right that a 75 year old lady can walk into a bakery for a muffin and then yell at anyone she sees in there whose nostrils are showing or whose mask is on their chin? If you want to guarantee your safety, don't go out for muffins! And if you MUST get that muffin, then understand that there is an inherent risk to that outing! But you have deluded these people into believing that their little muffin excursion is 100% safe due to their flimsy, possibly mis-worn, mask. THAT is the real rishus. Masks are not magic. Masks and social distancing are all we have and so we have to try our best and do what we can. But implying to your followers that masks are righteous and not wearing a mask is evil is wrong, mis-leading, and dangerous.

THE REALITIES OF COVID

So if masking works and distancing works, why is covid still a thing 7 months later? You imply constantly that it is simply due to our own shortcomings. If people would just listen to you, Covid would be beat! But that is a fallacy. The entire world is still dealing with Covid 7 months later. Israel was down to 10 cases countrywide. Here in the Five Towns we enjoyed 3 months of virtual silence on the Covid-front. Camps were clean. Now schools are not.

Have you considered that perhaps you don’t need to blame anyone? That someone who simply wanted to give her daughter a nice wedding event isn’t a monster?

The reality of Covid is that the whole world doesn’t know how to beat Covid. Firstly, it is an insidious virus. You can be responsible 99% of the time or even 100% of the time but if you OR someone around you lets their guard down for a second, you can contract it and/or spread it to others.

Your recent update listed a slew of scary questions you say you got about a chazan, a Rav and others who removed their mask for a second on Rosh Hashana then realized afterwards that they are positive. The common denominator in YOUR analysis was how evil everyone is for not taking your mask threats seriously and how we should all listen to you better because quarantine or Covid will come get us if not.

But the virus could have spread even if they masked 100% of the time they were in shul. The takeaway is that Covid is hard to beat because each of those people was going around, living their life and trying to be good about mask-usage, but it is possible to let your guard down and spread the virus and you won’t find out until it is too late!

Covid is here to stay. Masks, social distancing, therapeutics, vaccines, and some Emunah and Tefilah. That’s all we have or can aspire to in our arsenal and Covid still can’t be eradicated so far, all we can do is slow the spread.

SIMCHOS/KIDDUSHES

Why have you made Kiddushes a core tenet of your attacks? Why not indoor eating at restaurants? The answer is that if you attacked restaurants and the parnassah of so many owners and employees in our community, they would fight back. But a kiddush is an easy target. “Who needs kugel in shul?” you ask. You may very well be right. And guess what? 95% of the community is doing kiddushes in a responsible way or not at all.

ANTIBODIES

The craziest thing in all of this is that antibodies have become irrelevant on a policy-making level. If you have antibodies from a month ago, you still can’t go into stores or shuls with a mask, you still can’t travel freely, and if your child’s class is sent home, your antibody-safe child will be sent home with them! It is a shame that this has been ignored but the truth is that many of the people getting yelled at about their mask placement know that they have strong, recent antibodies and are not a threat of transmitting Covid. But they will get yelled at by you, the DOH and your followers all the same.

DISTRUST OF SCIENCE/POLITICIANS

Your community updates do a wonderful job of showing the latest science and studies. But the irony is that if one reads your last 6 months of updates they will quickly observe that the science in a number of areas has changed numerous times! Mask efficacy, testing policies, and many other CDC guidelines have been in a constant state of flux.

You laud the DOH constantly and you immediately named 8 Shoresh boys as responsible for an "outbreak" in our community simply because the DOH called you and asked that you warn EVERYONE (perhaps you could have just confronted those 8 families?)

We all agree that vaccines are important and children should be vaccinated. Deep down hopefully we all agree that a Covid vaccine that goes through all of the right processes is vital to us all getting back to a "normal" world. But the science has become so partisan and the partisan politics has become so toxic, that even well-informed people don't know what to believe any more! And the mindless, ignorant sheeples on both sides of the political spectrum? They are really in trouble! So yes, distressingly, your constant praise of science as the solution and your insistence that the CDC, DOH, or the WHO know what they are talking about is going to be met with skepticism and detractors.

When BLM protests (and the ensuing riots) are allowed with no masks or distancing but reopening protests are called murderous and Chasidic children have their lemonade stands shutdown, skepticism and distrust are the natural reactions.

EMUNAH AND BITACHON

A few months ago, Gila Jedwab, a spiritual woman who speaks from her heart, wrote an article asking why we had placed all of our faith in masks and no one was talking about faith in Hashem. You deliberately exaggerated her point and ripped the idea that emunah in Hashem is all we need and that masks are not needed. She had to write another column explaining the obvious: that she just meant that it would be nice if people remembered Hashem in all of this.

Because you are a scientist and an expert, your updates discuss the facts as you see them. Yes you start with a Dvar Torah on your video update. But the main takeaway from your emphasis on vaccine updates, mask suggestions, and recent studies DOES seem to imply that your focus is on mankind and science exclusively. I am sure if asked you will agree that emunah and bitachon are important too. But those messages aren't getting out to the community. Clearly they aren't. Because we are seeing people rat each other out, families fighting, and lashon horah attacks left and right. We have never been more fractured and we have never been more in need of achdus, tefilah and bitachon. Yet your update this week focuses on how Yom Kippur and our repentance decides who lives and who dies. What about telling your followers to ask Hashem for repentance for the time they yelled at some poor kid for having their mask down?

DIFFERENT SECTS OF JUDAISM

Lastly, while this has been more subtle, a clear trend emerges in your updates. Anyone who is like you, you approve of. Law-abiding, Modern-Orthodox, science-promoting. But some of your early mentions of shul reopening policies and some of the comments you have made about which activities you disapprove of have succeeded in driving a wedge between those who perceive themselves as "Modern Orthodox" vs. more right-wing. Maybe you feel it is the "yeshivish" or the "chassidim" who are to blame for every surge and every uptick and every packed wedding?

You say that not wearing a mask is sinas chinam; well, blaming one sect or group over another is equally abhorrent. Maybe we can all try to get along? Even if we disagree on big issues or look different or have different views on Covid? The NY Times will rip the “Hasidic Jews” enough. Why do we also have to commit friendly fire?

CONCLUSION

Sadly, many of us agree with many of your overall points. We too want grandma to live a long, healthy life. Most of us wear masks as much as possible! Most of us don't go to packed kiddushes or dance at weddings in the Covid era. But we also know that Covid isn't the sole threat to our community, our gashmiyus, our ruchniyus, or even to our lives.

You said that the DOH and the government wasn’t the government from czarist Russia. You couldn’t understand why someone wouldn’t give their wedding contact list to the DOH to contact “trace” (read: “harass”). Well if New York and New York City aren’t Czarist Russia, they sure are starting to feel like Communist Russia! Our civil liberties are being stripped from us and all they are giving us to distract us is some free Devash chocolate milk.

CONTACT US

Rabbi Dr. Glatt, please feel free to address this letter in your next update. Anyone who has seen this and wants to vent, critique, or otherwise speak up, please feel free to email us at ReopenFTschools@gmail.com

Sincerely,

Many Really Disappointed Members of the Community