Orthodox Jews beset by virus grapple with mayor’s rebuke
NEW YORK » It started with a funeral that got out of hand. It ended Wednesday with some of New York City’s Jews at odds with the mayor over his criticisms of the Orthodox community as it struggles to deal with the coronavirus.
The funeral was for Rabbi Chaim Mertz, a revered Hasidic Orthodox leader whose death was reportedly linked to the coronavirus. The congregation that was hosting the gathering said Wednesday a funeral appropriate to the times was planned, with mourners wearing masks and saying their farewells from a distance.
Instead, thousands gathered Tuesday night at the Kahal Tolath Yakov synagogue in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg area. De Blasio personally joined in the dispersal of the crowd, and then tweeted that “my message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed.”
He told reporters Wednesday that he was sorry “if in my passion and in my emotion” he had caused offense, but described
“no regrets” about calling out the Hasidic funeral.
De Blasio’s comments sparked criticism from two Jewish city council members as well as Jewish groups and some of his fellow Democrats. Orthodox leaders who last month aligned in a rare show of unity against the virus were left in a painful spot, echoing other Jewish advocates in lamenting their public singling out by a mayor who has been an ally.
“This is a greater issue of how careful we need to be when we single out a specific group,” said Avi Greenstein, CEO of the Boro Park Jewish Community Council, suggesting “a level of caution toward pointing fingers.”
He was among some New York Jewish leaders who defended de Blasio as an ally of their faith who had stumbled in his handling of an already tense moment.
And the congregation that planned the funeral looked to calm tensions. A statement circulated on social media on Kahal Tolath Yakov’s letterhead described a plan to accommodate mourners safely that went awry, leading to the amassing of hundreds in the streets.
“We understand Mayor Bill de Blasio’s frustration and his speaking out against the gathering,” stated the letter, signed by congregation secretary Jacob Mertz. “It also hurts that this led to singling out the Jewish community, and for that we apologize to all Jewish people.”
Orthodox Jewish communities in the New York metropolitan region were among the first to be walloped by the coronavirus.