Hundreds of New Yorkers, packed shoulder-to-shoulder, gathered in New York City’s waterfront parks on Tuesday to catch a glimpse of the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds as the planes roared overhead. This was an obvious violation of social distancing, but the city’s officials did little besides reminding residents to wear masks while in public.
That same day, hundreds of Orthodox Jews gathered in the streets of Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, to hold a funeral for a prominent rabbi, Chaim Mertz. Pictures from the event show many attendees wearing masks. Yet, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, one of the worst officials in the crisis, decided that this event was “unacceptable” and threatened to send law enforcement after not just anyone who violated social distancing, but specifically the Jewish community.
My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) April 29, 2020
De Blasio has not yet said a word about the crowds that gathered to watch the Blue Angels. Telling.
As Phil Klein has pointed out, there is no way de Blasio would have singled out any other ethnic, religious, or racial group. De Blasio hasn’t even consistently condemned group gatherings. Indeed, he’s participated in quite a few himself, including one near New York Harbor several weeks ago when the USNS Comfort arrived and another at Fort Totten in Queens to meet with dozens of out-of-state medical personnel.
There was nothing wrong with de Blasio attending these gatherings. But by his own standard, he is just as much at fault as those who gathered at the funeral, and so are many other New Yorkers who have violated social distancing, for that matter. But there was only one group of people de Blasio wanted to denounce.
The few hundred Orthodox Jewish worshipers represented a tiny fraction of the more than 1 million Jews in the city.
So, what exactly was he trying to accomplish? That question can be universally applied to just about everything de Blasio does. But in this case, it seems de Blasio was trying to prove that he can make the tough calls and enforce policies that might not be popular in the communities that need social distancing the most. Instead, he singled out a specific religious group.
De Blasio’s words could have real consequences in a city that has recently been a locus of anti-Semitic violence for which de Blasio has been famously loath to take any responsibility. By specifically targeting New York’s Jewish community, a religious group historically used as a scapegoat (especially during plagues) and violently targeted in the New York City area in the recent past, de Blasio has since before the coronavirus been giving anti-Semites an excuse to berate, exclude, and discriminate against Orthodox Jews, who are already easily identifiable. He has put a target their backs, making it all too easy for others to blame the Jewish community if the coronavirus continues to spread or makes a comeback in a few months.
With this kind of rhetoric coming directly from the top, is it any wonder that anti-Semitism is on the rise in New York City? We should hope the rest of the city treats the Jewish community with more compassion and respect than de Blasio.
