NYC Orthodox community protest COVID restrictions

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Hundreds of members of the Borough Park Orthodox community took to the streets Tuesday night defying orders to disperse and lighting a fire in protest of new state mandated restrictions imposed on area synagogues, schools and non-essential businesses over a COVID-19 surge.

It’s called civil disobedience, we can fight back,” Tischler told the crowd after tearing up his face mask. “Do not allow them to torture you or scare you,” he said, referring to the elected officials.

The protests swarmed in numbers later in the night with demonstrators shutting down 13th Avenue to vehicular traffic.

Things also turned unruly when the crowd lit a rubbish fire after midnight at the intersection of 46th Street and 13th Avenue and chased away two city sheriff’s deputies who responded.

The defiant crowd chanted “Jewish lives matter,” as they held their ground.

Hundreds of members of Brooklyn's Orthodox community stormed the streets and synagogues of Borough Park on Tuesday night to protest new coronavirus restrictions imposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Pledging "war" on officials and public health guidance, demonstrators clad in black religious garb set fires along 13th Avenue and tossed masks into the flames. They chased away NYC Sheriff's Deputies while shouting "Jewish Lives Matter," video shows, and attacked a photojournalist attempting to capture the scene.

Another Orthodox man, who'd opposed the anti-mask crowd, was deemed a "snitch" and reportedly hospitalized after a mob of protesters beat him with rocks. His brother, Mordy Getz, told Gothamist that he was "severely" injured and knocked unconscious, but was doing better as of Wednesday morning.

Residents in Borough Park have largely flouted public health rules on masks and gatherings, even as the positivity rate in the area has surpassed 8 percent, the highest in the five boroughs.

"Nobody here has the virus," said a woman walking in Borough Park with her children on Tuesday, adding that lockdowns were politically motivated by Democrats. "The president got the virus, he recovered. There are medicines now."

The overnight protest was organized by Heshy Tischler, an anti-mask activist and radio host who last month interrupted a public health briefing. He told the crowd on Tuesday that such demonstrations would take place nightly until the ban on gatherings was lifted. "You are my soldiers," he said. "We are at war." As he spoke, other demonstrators could be heard chanting "Donald Trump."

President Trump linked to a video of members of the Orthodox community clashing with New York City law enforcement officers as they tried to disperse crowds protesting new coronavirus restrictions, referring to the scene as a “grim picture.”

“Wow, what does this grim picture remind you of? I am the only thing in the Radical Left’s way! VOTE,” the president wrote in a tweet on Wednesday.

Trump linked to the video in “Casino” actor James Woods’ Twitter account, in which the conservative actor laid into Mayor Bill de Blasio, who along with Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the crackdown.

“’Rounding up the Jews’ is an optic that I would never have expected to see in my American lifetime. DeBlasio is a criminal. No wonder he changed his name from Wilhelm. He is an anti-Semite thug piece of s—,” Woods wrote in his posting.

It shows a line of NYPD and sheriff’s office personnel trying to disperse a crowd in the street protesting the new rules and celebrating the Sukkot holiday.

Harold "Heshy" Tischler strolled onto 13th Avenue in Borough Park at 9 p.m. Wednesday night, bare-faced and hoarse from days of screaming, and into the arms of an adoring crowd. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators chanted his name, waving Trump and Thin Blue Lines flags as they jockeyed for a chance to meet the brash right-wing radio host leading the campaign to stop the new COVID-19 lockdown measures.

“We are at war!” Tischler shouted to the crowd of protesters. “You are my soldiers!”

An hour later, Tischler directed an angry mob of young Hasidic men as they surrounded and attacked Jacob Kornbluh, a veteran reporter with Jewish Insider. At Tischler's urging, the group hissed and spit at Kornbluh, labeling him a Nazi and a “moser” — a term for a Jewish person who informs on their own community.

As NYPD officers attempted to extract Kornbluh from the ugly scene, the group pinned their target against a wall, lunging and kicking at him.

It was the second straight night of rage and violence in Borough Park.

There were no arrests or summonses during either night of unrest, according to an NYPD spokesperson. Despite efforts to disperse the mass gathering late Wednesday, police eventually retreated from the street, allowing thousands of people to take the roadways.

“No way we were breaking that up,” an officer with the Community Affairs Unit was overheard admitting.

Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo are trying to destroy Donald Trump’s election,” said Heshy Friedman, a 57-year-old Borough Park resident. “They’re using COVID to try to close off all the neighborhoods that are pro-Trump.”

According to the latest city data, more than 8 percent of those tested in Borough Park returned positive results for coronavirus, the highest rate across the five boroughs.

Echoing Trump — and Tischler — many in the crowd directed their anger at the “fake news” media. After roughing up Kornbluh, members of the group encircled and threatened an ABC-7 news crew. Later on in the night, as the crowd took over larger swaths of 13th Avenue, a desperate scream would occasionally pierce the wall of sirens and music.
“You kicked him so well,” a young boy was overheard saying at around midnight, as dozens of people hurriedly walked away from what appeared to be another group beating.

Police sources told the Post on Wednesday that it was long understood among cops that City Hall wanted them to take a “hands off” in Hasidic enclaves, for fear of offending the powerful voting bloc.

I don't blame these people for protesting. The US Constitution guarantees us the "right to assemble peacefully" as well as freedom of religion. The existence of a virus, especially one that kills only 1 or 2 percent of those infected, does not negate our constitutional rights. The government has too much power these days.