Protests among members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community stretched into a second straight night following Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order to reimpose coronavirus restrictions on certain areas of New York City.
Cuomo announced on Tuesday capacity restrictions on houses of worship in New York City, closed schools, and banned large gatherings in areas with identified virus clusters. In some areas, attendance at indoor events would be limited to 10 people at a time.
Those restrictions were announced during the Jewish holiday Sukkot, and the first protests broke out the night of Cuomo’s announcement. Videos showed crowds, largely unmasked, shouting in protest. In some cases, fires were started. In one incident, a Hasidic man was beaten for being “disloyal to the community,” according to the New York Times.
Boro Park uprising against @andrewcuomo @nycmayor has begun. People starting fires in the street. So not normal. pic.twitter.com/AB5BpfeyvF
— NYCPHOTOG (@nycphotog) October 7, 2020
Jacob Kornbluh, a reporter for the Jewish Insider, tweeted Thursday night that he had been “brutally assaulted, hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members of the Boro Park protest.”
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 recognized me and ordered the crowd to chase me down the street
— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) October 8, 2020
Other videos show groups of Orthodox Jews, largely unmasked, burning masks in the street.
HAPPENING NOW: Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, New York, set fire to a pile of face masks in protest of lockdown restrictions by @NYGovCuomo pic.twitter.com/acMjG25lcX
— SV News ? (@SVNewsAlerts) October 7, 2020
Some participating in the protests have pointed to President Trump as a motivator for protesting. Heshy Tischler, whom Kornbluh identified as the man who incited the attack against him, told Forward, “When I’m on the street, I don’t have to wear a mask, just like the president,” he said.
Videos from Wednesday night show several members of the Orthodox community holding Trump flags amid the protests.
??✡️ — HAPPENING NOW: Orthodox Jews with @realDonaldTrump flags dance to music on the streets of Brooklyn in protest of New York Gov. Cuomo’s partial synagogue closures and singling out the Jewish community.
— Belaaz (@TheBelaaz) October 8, 2020
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday morning that there would be “no tolerance” for violence following last night’s protests, echoing a similar statement on Wednesday.
“There’s a place for peaceful protest, but the NYPD will not tolerate people doing harm to others. There will be no tolerance for assaults, for damage to property, for setting fires,” de Blasio said at a press briefing Wednesday. “Anything like that is unacceptable.”
