A rabbi moves Holocaust survivors to front of vaccination line

The COVID-19 vaccination clinic for Holocaust survivors in a local synagogue started out a bit ominously: A police cruiser was stationed outside and a bomb-sniffing German Shepherd was deployed inside, zealously looking for explosives.

“Unfortunately, it’s because we’re Jewish,” said Rabbi Danielle Eskow, who organized the clinic Thursday at Congregation Kehillath Israel, a conservative synagogue in Brookline. “We have to worry about these things.”

The idea for the clinic came from the rabbi’s physician sister, Marisa Tieger. They’d been chatting about how unfair it was that as healthy women in their 30s they had easy access to the vaccine by virtue of their professions, while people much older — especially Holocaust survivors — are struggling to get it. The state’s overwhelmed vaccination program has been riddled with problems, including an inadequate vaccine allotment, scant appointments, and a clunky appointment booking system prone to crashing. Another hurdle is that two of the largest mass vaccination centers — Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium — are hard to get to