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Living Well, Dying Well: Religion, Health, and Healing Series, with Dr. Ben Kasstan

Ben Kasstan
October 29, 2020
12:00PM - 1:30PM
Online (Please click on the link in the title to be taken to the registration page for this event)

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2020-10-29 12:00:00 2020-10-29 13:30:00 Living Well, Dying Well: Religion, Health, and Healing Series, with Dr. Ben Kasstan This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please click on the title below to register for this event and receive the link to join the virtual meeting. Technologies of Transgression? Questioning ‘Religious Opposition’ to Vaccines Dr. Ben Kasstan (Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of Sussex) Thursday, October 29, 12:00pm-1:30pm From  Orthodox Protestants in The Netherlands to Amish and Orthodox Jews in the USA, lower-level vaccination coverage among religious minorities in the global north has emerged as a major public health challenge. Recent measles epidemics, too, have raised questions about managing religious difference or ‘exemption’ in liberal societies, notably concerning legislation and mandates in the USA. Yet, to what extent is it appropriate to conceptualise this issue as a case of ‘religious opposition’ to vaccination? Drawing on an ethnographic study of vaccine decision-making among Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel-Palestine, this paper explores how vaccines are entangled in contested and shifting ideas of religious transgression and authenticity. Whereas parents broadly condemned non-vaccination as a transgression of Jewish law, parents who refused vaccines on the grounds of safety consolidated their positions by drawing on the same laws to frame non-vaccination as a religious imperative. Common criticism surrounding biomedical technologies then discursively 'converts' in religiously Orthodox settings, producing evolving claims of moral opposition and rights to religious freedom. Dr. Ben Kasstan is a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Research Associate in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. A medical anthropologist with a research background in global and public health, he has conducted fieldwork in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel, Lesotho, The Gambia and Nigeria. Dr. Kasstan's first book, Making Bodies Kosher: The Politics of Reproduction among Haredi Jews in England, examines the ways in which Haredi Jews negotiate healthcare services; Making Bodies Kosher is available as an open-access publication through the publisher, Berghahn Books. If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact Sarah Dove at dove.76@osu.edu. Requests made at least one week in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.  This event is supported by a grant from the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme. Online (Please click on the link in the title to be taken to the registration page for this event) Center for the Study of Religion religion@osu.edu America/New_York public

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please click on the title below to register for this event and receive the link to join the virtual meeting.

Technologies of Transgression?
Questioning ‘Religious Opposition’ to Vaccines

Dr. Ben Kasstan (Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of Sussex)
Thursday, October 29, 12:00pm-1:30pm

From  Orthodox Protestants in The Netherlands to Amish and Orthodox Jews in the USA, lower-level vaccination coverage among religious minorities in the global north has emerged as a major public health challenge. Recent measles epidemics, too, have raised questions about managing religious difference or ‘exemption’ in liberal societies, notably concerning legislation and mandates in the USA. Yet, to what extent is it appropriate to conceptualise this issue as a case of ‘religious opposition’ to vaccination? Drawing on an ethnographic study of vaccine decision-making among Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel-Palestine, this paper explores how vaccines are entangled in contested and shifting ideas of religious transgression and authenticity. Whereas parents broadly condemned non-vaccination as a transgression of Jewish law, parents who refused vaccines on the grounds of safety consolidated their positions by drawing on the same laws to frame non-vaccination as a religious imperative. Common criticism surrounding biomedical technologies then discursively 'converts' in religiously Orthodox settings, producing evolving claims of moral opposition and rights to religious freedom.

Dr. Ben Kasstan is a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Research Associate in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. A medical anthropologist with a research background in global and public health, he has conducted fieldwork in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel, Lesotho, The Gambia and Nigeria. Dr. Kasstan's first book, Making Bodies Kosher: The Politics of Reproduction among Haredi Jews in England, examines the ways in which Haredi Jews negotiate healthcare services; Making Bodies Kosher is available as an open-access publication through the publisher, Berghahn Books.


If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact Sarah Dove at dove.76@osu.edu. Requests made at least one week in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date. 

This event is supported by a grant from the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme.