Biddably Compliant Ciizens under COVID Restrictions They Are Not

"These were members of my own community with hatred in their eyes, flipping the finger toward me, calling me a Nazi, saying I deserve to die."

"I was just brutally assaulted, hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members of the Boro Park protest — while yelling at me 'Nazi’ and ‘Hitler’ — after Heshy Tischler [city council candidate] recognized me and ordered the crowd to chase me down the street,” 

"All these months I keep a distance, wear a mask not to get sick, advocate for measures that save lives, they disrespect my space and do something horrifying."

"[I was] hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members."

Jacob Kornbluh, politics reporter, Jewish Insider

 

"To the extent there are communities that are upset, that's because they haven't been following the original rules."

"That's why the infection spread. That’s why we are where we are, make no mistake."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

 

"We are appalled by Governor Cuomo's words and actions today."

"He has chosen to pursue a scientifically and constitutionally questionable shutdown of our communities."

Simcha Eichenstein, New York state assemblyman

"We know that we've got to get out of this and we've got to get out of it quickly. No one wants to see a full resurgence, a second wave in New York City. If we get a second wave, then a lot more will be shut down for a lot longer."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio 

The epitome of good citizenship they clearly are not, demonstrably. Demonstrating that they are faithful to their fundamentalist religious view, quite less committed to their community's health and security in the face of COVID-19's rampage through the boroughs where ultra-religiously-orthodox Jews live, work and pray, not necessarily in that order. Tensions arose within these communities in New York boroughs from the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 to the present time. When the community leaders felt it more important to continue holding in-person religious services than to recommend to their synagogue members that for the present, it would be more prudent to be physically distant.

This is a community for which physical distance at any time, is difficult. They are close-knit, have very large families and for them synagogue and community are paramount influences in their lives. Religious holiday events call for mass celebrations, large gatherings for prayer in synagogues and family get-togethers, unrestrained, boisterous, celebrating life and faith. Brooklyn's neighbourhoods of predominately orthodox Jewish communities are difficult to restrain, much less to convince to tone down their community events through which the coronavirus transmission skyrockets.

Funnily enough, a similar situation pertains in Montreal, Canada, in the very same communities. Some members of which travel frequently between their Montreal communities to those in New York, to share religious events and reunite with extended family. Inconveniently bringing the virus back with them. Israel's runaway infection rate has much to thank the same communities in Israel for, where they are every bit as resistant to government protective edicts as they are elsewhere. While constituting 12 percent of the population, they represent 40 percent of the infections in Israel.

God uber alles. And where in Israel the government, hugely dependent on ultra-religious political blocs to shore up minority governments, leaves the situation as is, for fear of the religious communities withdrawing their support for government, necessitating yet another in a string of elections, no such restraint on government orders exists in New York. Where the city's mayor and the state governor issue statements critical of the community's lack of commitment to personal safety, extending to the wider community comes into focus.

Where the communities in question send up outraged cries of discrimination. Mr. Kornbluh, the reporter who was attacked while he was, in essence, going about his journalistic business, as a member of the same orthodox community explains the reasons the community is defiant represents a tangled web of government mistrust, and resentment that lawmakers 'interfere' in their religious activities, along with unfairly criticizing the orthodox community. He feels that community outreach has been lacking, which adds to the element of denial and distrust.

The reality is that the pandemic hit at an early stage hardest within the Orthodox neighbourhoods in New York, where the first reports of cases surfaced. And where dozens of funerals took place day following day, while authorities took steps to clamp down on the huge funeral gatherings where virus transmission ran rampant. The targeted community feels they've been unfairly singled out for criticism. And while there was a notable drop in cases over the summer, infections have once again risen, and the orthodox community appears to have significantly relaxed social distancing and other public health rules.

Within the communities flyers instruct families to refrain from having their children tested, since that has the potential of revealing a rising positivity rate, risking a shutdown of celebrations for the High Holidays. Because of accusations from the communities and a shortage of Yiddish-speaking interpreters, those within the communities have lacked official encouragement or the enforcement to ensure public health guidelines are complied with. 

On Tuesday, Governor Cuomo ordered schools in the areas to close, and he also shut down non-essential businesses, while imposing strict capacity limits on religious gatherings, ensuring an immediate blowback from the elected officials within the community, claiming the governor had lied to them in a "duplicitous bait and switch", making "irresponsible and pejorative" comments with Jews the target.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn to protest Covid-19 restrictions in New York City on Oct. 7, 2020.  Yuki Iwamura / Reuters