(New York) Dubbed “the Donald Trump of Borough Park” by the magazine New York, Heshy Tischler confirms his reputation as a tough guy by calling the governor of New York State an “idiot” and the mayor of the city of the same name as “retarded” in an interview with The Press.
Posted on October 15, 2020 at 12:00 a.m.
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This Hasidic community activist and radio host does not use more diplomatic language to denounce the new measures by Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio to fight a worrying spread of the coronavirus in several neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens at high population of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
PHOTO YUKI IWAMURA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Heshy Tischler, activist in the New York Hasidic community
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The measures include shutting down non-essential businesses and schools, including yeshivas, and limiting gatherings at places of worship to ten people for at least two weeks.
“I think it’s stupidity, incompetence and, yes, anti-Semitism,” Heshy Tischler said in a telephone interview. Often forgoing the black garb of his Hasidic neighbors, Heshy Tischler gained attention last week as he participated in protests in Borough Park in which masks were burnt and Donald Trump’s flags waved.
“You are my soldiers! We are at war! “, He launched last Tuesday evening to many young ultra-Orthodox demonstrators who took to the streets of the Brooklyn neighborhood. The following evening, he found himself at the center of an altercation with an Orthodox journalist which resulted in him being arrested and charged with inciting a riot. Accusation that he vigorously denies.
We Jews are easy targets. We never respond. Well, we’ve had enough. Our children are locked up. We have 91 suicides. And are they surprised to see us protest?
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Heshy Tischler, activist of the Hasidic Jewish community
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Necessary rules
If he speaks louder than the others, Heshy Tischler is not the only figure from New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities to have criticized the new measures imposed by Governor Cuomo and supported by Mayor de Blasio. Some religious leaders have particularly lamented that these measures were put into effect in the middle of the celebration of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday that spans seven days.
But public health experts have no doubts that the new rules are necessary. “There’s a cluster of neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens where we’re seeing significant spikes in community transmission,” says Denis Nash, professor of epidemiology at New York City University.
“This is something that could have been detected and stopped earlier. Now that is starting to be of great concern in terms of the number of transmissions that could take place, he adds. I think the measures to restrict gatherings are particularly important. ”
After being the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in the United States, New York State experienced several weeks this summer in which its daily positivity rate did not exceed 1%.
Things started to turn sour at the end of the summer in some areas of Brooklyn and Queens, however, which recorded infection rates of 3% to 8%.
These neighborhoods, home to about 500,000 people, all have large populations of ultra-Orthodox Jews in whom mask-wearing or physical distancing rules were dropped by many over the summer.
David Bloomfield, professor of education at Brooklyn College and the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of the City of New York, believes he can explain this phenomenon. “The Hasidic community was hit hard by COVID-19 at the height of the epidemic,” he says. Hundreds of people died from it. But when the number of infections and deaths fell, it created the false impression that the community had developed herd immunity. ”
A “deep disappointment”
“The gaps in the teaching of secular subjects in Hasidic schools in New York have also contributed to this denial of the health emergency within the community,” he adds. There is a lack of understanding that allows the public health interest to be ignored. ”
Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella organization for ultra-Orthodox Jewish organizations, rejects such an analysis. In an interview with The Associated Press, he claimed that a majority of community members were “determined to do what is necessary” to fight the coronavirus.
His organization nonetheless expressed “deep disappointment” after a federal judge refused his request to suspend the application of Governor Cuomo’s new measures. These measures, it should be remembered, were announced days after New York City authorized restaurants to again serve their diners and public schools to resume teaching in person for students of all grades. levels.
Even though the current situation is concerning in some neighborhoods, I don’t think New York will relive what we experienced last spring.
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Denis Nash, professor of epidemiology at the University of the City of New York
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“We have a long fall and a long winter ahead of us, but we’re in a better position than we were to deal with it,” he adds.
In the meantime, Heshy Tischler, the Borough Park activist, will continue to fight against Governor Cuomo’s measures, despite some weariness. “Oh, I’m tired,” he said. My father was a Holocaust survivor. My mother was a Holocaust survivor. I am ready to retire. But you know what ? When I see injustice, I fight back. ”
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