Is Mayor Bill de Blasio an anti-Semite? The sad thing is, it doesn’t even matter. Once a high profile public official utters sharp, focused, anti-Semitic words and articulates an anti-Semitic policy, the cat is out of the bag. If de Blasio apologizes the next day and shows that his heart is in the right place, permission has already been given.
We never thought we would see state-sponsored anti-Semitic words or acts in this country. This is dangerous, unexpected and appalling, particularly because of context. Anti-Semitism has grown around the world, including in the US. The mayor of America’s most influential city does not operate in a vacuum. Everything he says is magnified.
Here is what happened, best as we can piece together a story, all the pieces of which the mayor himself doesn’t seem to have known:
A rabbi died. His followers wanted to mourn him at a funeral. The synagogue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn that the rabbi led sought permission from the New York Police Dept. Its community affairs unit worked with Shomrim to erect barriers in advance of the funeral, putting social-distancing restrictions in place. The NYPD now will not comment on whether it approved of the funeral, but the fact is that the department knew about it, communicated with its planners, participated in the planning and was out in force during the funeral.
The social-distancing restrictions were not followed, either because they were ignored or because it was impossible under the circumstances. Either way, the synagogue owned up to the failure and profusely apologized.
The very same day as the funeral, other large crowds in New York City gathered and did not follow the social-distancing regulations.
In steps the mayor. He singles out “the Jewish community” — his words — for violating social-distancing restrictions and threatens arrests. Nary a word about the other, non-Jewish violators, in full public view. Nary a word about the miniscule size of the funeral, compared to the number of Jews in New York City. Nary a word about the presence of the NYPD at the event or about its probable prior approval of the event. The mayor’s words were shoot-from-the-hip and, at least in part, uninformed — never advisable, but especially not advisable with anti-Semitism gaining ground.
This is not a mayor who knows how to frame a criticism within a larger perspective of many violators of social distancing. Frankly, this is not a mayor who should be voicing criticism at all, given that he is no role model in the COVID-19 era. He downplayed the pandemic some six weeks ago and violated social distancing himself, flippantly heading off to his gym while telling others to follow the new rules. This is not a leader.
Within the Jewish community, different cohorts see the anti-Semitism issue differently. There are those who think it is more prevalent and those who think it is less prevalent. With regard to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s behavior last week, we have not detected any major differences within the Jewish community. His words were condemned by virtually all Jewish circles, except, ironically enough, certain chasidic circles.
The truth is, it is not just Mayor de Blasio. It is others, and it is media. Chasidic and other Jews who dress differently from the rest of society, decked out in their black clothing, have come to be stereotyped like the people with black skin were once stereotyped. This is dangerous.
Is it demonstrable that chasidic communities in New York City have a higher rate of infection than other communities? Or are people just paying more attention to chasidic violators? For politicians or media or retailers to focus on visibly different Jews, while letting other individuals and other gatherings and other communities off the hook is bigoted and dangerous, unworthy of this country.
Needless to say, none of this excuses bad behavior by Jews, chasidic or otherwise, however small the number of violators may be. It is not enough for Jews to defend the larger Jewish community by pointing out that the scofflaws are a small minority. One cannot accuse the mayor of abetting anti-Semitism yet duck the anti-Semitic context oneself. If anti-Semitism is growing, it behooves not only the mayor of New York but all of the Jewish citizens of New York to act with the required caution; that is, not to give anti-Semites an excuse.
Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News
