‘It leads to anti-Semitism’
Orthodox Jewish Brooklynites respond to COVID-19 scrutiny
BY ROSE ADAMS
Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish
communities are facing
renewed scrutiny following
a series of COVID-19 upticks
and protests against new lockdown
measures. But many Orthodox
Jews worry that generalizations
about their alleged
indifference to the virus are
misinformed and potentially
anti-Semitic.
“I think that the narrative
is that you have an Orthodox
Jewish community that
by and large wants to thumb
their noses at the science, but
that’s just not the case,” said
Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas,
a CUNY professor who lives
in a Sephardic Orthodox community
in southern Brooklyn.
“There’s a lot more diversity
within the Orthodox Jewish
community than people recognize.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued
an executive order on
Oct. 6 mandating that schools
and businesses in New York
City’s coronavirus hotspots
close, and that houses of worship
COURIER L 16 IFE, OCT. 16-22, 2020
limit their capacity to 10
people.
Many of the hotspots —
which the governor calls “red
zones” — are in Orthodox Jewish
and Hasidic communities,
such as Borough Park, Midwood,
Homecrest, and Forest
Hills, Queens. The daily rate
of positive COVID-19 tests in
these areas ranged from four
to over eight percent as of Oct.
9.
Cuomo’s restrictions infuriated
several local offi cials —
who called the measures discriminatory
— and touched
off two nights of demonstrations
in Borough Park, where
mostly mask-less attendees
waved Trump fl ags and lit face
masks on fi re. Mobs at the protests
attacked two Hasidic dissenters,
injuring one of them
critically.
“You are my soldiers! We
are at war!” said one of the
protest organizers, radio personality
Heshy Tischler, to the
crowd on Oct. 6.
Critics have pinned the
COVID-19 outbreaks on widespread
pro-Trump messaging
that minimizes the dangers
of the virus and the need
for safety measures, like face
masks. But many Orthodox
Jews emphasize that there are
many denominations within
Orthodox Judaism — ranging
from modern orthodoxy to
branches of Haredi Judaism,
or ultra-Orthodoxy — and
that each of New York City’s
500,000 Orthodox Jews view
COVID-19 safety precautions
differently.
“You’ll see people in compliance,
you’ll see people not in
compliance,” said Ezra Friedlander,
a Borough Park resident
who served as a staffer
for former Assemblyman Dov
Hikind and Public Advocate
Mark Green.
Friedlander said he supports
mask-wearing and other
safety protocols, but argued
that the ultra-Orthodox community’s
unique demographics
and social structure require
a more tailored approach to
COVID-19 containment. While
other neighborhoods may see
a decrease in COVID-19 cases
because of school closures,
there are so many children
in Borough Park that without
the structure and precautions
of a classroom, they gather
in parks and streets, spreading
the virus more quickly, he
said.
“What’s going to happen
when you close the schools
down? All the kids are going to
congregate with 50 other kids,
then they’re going to someone
Thousands of Orthodox Jewish residents fi lled the streets of Borough
Park on Oct. 7 to protest new COVID-19 restrictions on houses of worship.
Photo by Todd Maisel
Continued on page 26
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