'This is Not a Jewish Problem': COVID Doesn't Discriminate, but Jewish Community Says NY Officials Do

The Jewish community in New York is fed up by what they call disproportionate targeting by state and local officials. This has led to claims their communities are responsible for spreading the Coronavirus, a message they say is not only untrue but dangerous.

"People have to wear their masks, people have to social distance, and sometimes a summons is given because it needs to be, but we have to be careful not to overreach," cautioned Devorah Halberstam, an outspoken anti-Semitism activist and co-founder of the Jewish Children's Museum in Brooklyn. 

Overreach is exactly how the folks in New York would describe what they're seeing from the government and they're using social media to show what's been going on.

In this video, an inspector began writing a citation for a Jewish school before ever entering the building to see if they'd broken any rules. A faculty member confronts her to be told she had, "a list" of schools to visit.

"You have a list of the schools that are open? So you have a summons that you're writing before even coming into the school? Because you just came into the school there's not one kid here," the faculty member can be heard saying.

"That inspector and many others, those roaming around my district, have been sent to my district with a list, on a mission," said Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein. 

His district includes the neighborhoods of Borough Park and Midwood in Brooklyn, two areas currently in what's known as the "Red Zone." That's how Governor Andrew Cuomo is classifying a high infection area, and the city is sending in officials to ensure their schools, houses of worship, and businesses are closed.

"It's clear what has happened here. They've pulled inspectors from the Buildings Department, HBD, you name it, any agency you can think of that has inspectors, and said, 'You're off your regular beat, you're going to Borough Park,' or 'You're going to Midwood and you're going to harass these Jewish stores,'" Eichenstein told CBN News.

In this video, an inspector cites restaurant owner Jacob Green for just having the doors open and therefore, "violating a dining ban." 

"There's nobody in the restaurant, everything is OK, you're giving me a ticket because my doors are open?" you can hear Green questioning the inspector.

Green's restaurant is limited to offering take-out and he says he was just letting air in on a hot day. A city councilman was able to have his summons rescinded.

"I've had people reach out to my office, some take-out place came up and showed me the summons. [The] reason for the summons, violating the governor's executive order; no further definition, what, when, how, they haven't gotten the basic training," Eichenstein said.

He says the religious community began losing trust in the government after restrictions kept houses of worship closed until Phase 4 of re-opening. 

"To religious people, their houses of worship are essential. In the Jewish religion, Orthodox Jews go to synagogue three times a day to pray. Their entire way of life is around houses of worship. For houses of worship to be placed in Phase 4 –  how offensive," said Eichenstein.

Now he says Jewish neighborhoods are being singled out and shut down.

"Driving from one end of the Red Zone to the other end of the Red Zone in Brooklyn could take you 45 minutes...the governor has used the term, 'We can now identify the virus block by block.' Great – so release the positivity numbers block-by-block or show block-by-block where the improvement is," Eichenstein said.

"The dialogue needs to continue. It can't just be enforcement without conversations," Halberstam told CBN News.

She knows firsthand what can result from public shaming like that.

"My son was murdered. He was in a van with 15 students, kids, all kids, and the van was shot up with over 40 rounds of ammunition. There were Jews in that van and that's who he was looking for. That is what happens when anti-Semitism goes unchecked," Halberstam said.

She recently wrote in the New York Daily News that the Jewish community does not have the luxury of waiting for the next attack based on hateful stereotypes. Anti-Semitism and instances of violence against Jews hit an all-time high in the US before the pandemic began.

"Anti-Semitism goes back centuries, this is not a new thing, which is why we have to be very responsible," Halberstam explained.

"To roll this out as an Orthodox Jewish problem, first of all, is factually incorrect, not backed up by state data, but it is also divisive, and it will cause a rise in anti-Semitism," said Eichenstein.

A fact mentioned often by health officials is that COVID-19 does not discriminate. It's people who do that.