Jewish reporter says he was beaten up and called a Nazi by Orthodox Jews in New York City amid tensions over new coronavirus lockdowns

https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-orthodox-jews-anger-over-covid-19-lockdown-attack-one-another-2020-10

Julian Kossoff

Oct. 11, 2020

A Jewish reporter said he was attacked in Brooklyn as tensions mount among New York's Orthodox Jews over the best response to the coronavirus, which has hit the community hard since March.

Jacob Kornbluh, the national politics reporter for the Jewish Insider, covered the second night of protests on Wednesday in the neighborhood, opposed to a new local coronavirus restriction imposed by  Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Kornbluh, also a religious Jew,  has been prominent in warning the close-knit community about the public health dangers of COVID-19.

Kornbluh said a mob, incited by rabble-rousers, spotted and surrounded him. He said on Twitter that he was "hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members" at a protest in Borough Park, a southwestern region in Brooklyn, New York. 

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Heshy Tischler, a pro-Trump Orthodox Jew and a Brooklyn City Council candidate leading the protests, was accused of whipping up the crowd against Kornbluh, calling him a "rat."

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On the same night, a group also chased down and assaulted a Jewish freelance photographer and a third man, the New York Post reported.

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Local leaders told the New York Times the spike in infections is partly due to their beliefs that they had achieved herd immunity and in various coronavirus misinformation spread by President Donald Trump. The president has overwhelming support in the Orthodox community, which traditionally backs conservative Republican candidates.

At a Tuesday night gathering in Borough Park, protesters lit a fire, and threw cardboard boxes and face masks into the flames, according to NBC New York.

Despite calls for peace from the community leaders, Orthodox Jews who have warned of the dangers have been increasingly targeted in person and on social media with the Yiddish insult of "moiser" — meaning informant to the enemies of the Jews, and in the traditional belief system, punishable by death.

Several leading Orthodox rabbis have spoken out against the strife within the community and [against] denying the coronavirus threat.