{"id":81986,"date":"2020-11-13T17:05:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T15:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=81986"},"modified":"2020-11-06T07:56:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T05:56:04","slug":"13-05-57","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=81986","title":{"rendered":"When Jews are targeted \u2013 and it\u2019s not antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>When Jews are targeted \u2013 and it\u2019s not antisemitism<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

AMY KLEIN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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It was right before the High Holy Days. I was worried about the spread of the disease through the Jewish community, and I just wished we Jews would follow the clear science directives.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Illustrative photo: Residents of Borough Park in Brooklyn, last month.<\/em><\/span>
\n(photo credit: BRENDAN MCDERMID\/REUTERS)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t write about the Jews,\u201d I kept saying to myself in the fall as New York City\u2019s COVID-19 numbers started rising slowly in certain hot spots. I didn\u2019t want to write about the Jews because, although I have a long career in Jewish journalism (starting at The Jerusalem Post in the 1990s), in the last few years I\u2019ve been focusing on health, infertility and parenting stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, on my way to Brooklyn to see my extended family, I kept passing hordes of very mask-less, very obvious-looking Jews (men with long black coats and peyot, side curls; women wearing very modest clothing and sheitls, wigs, etc.) in Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park. My immuno-compromised relatives in Brooklyn, who were extra careful, kept telling me of friends and relatives who didn\u2019t \u201cbelieve\u201d in the virus or in the science of wearing masks. My ultra-Orthodox cousin told me she wouldn\u2019t get tested for antibodies because she\u2019d heard \u201cthey\u201d were tracking \u201cus.\u201d Friends \u2013 Jews and non-Jews alike \u2013 kept asking me, a former Orthodox Jew, why my people weren\u2019t wearing masks.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was right before the High Holy Days. I was worried about the spread of the disease through the Jewish community, and I just wished we Jews would follow the clear science directives. So I wrote about the Jews, to the Jews, in the New York Post: \u201cTo My Fellow New York Jews, I Beg: Wear the Damn Mask.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This was around the time of the demonstrations in Borough Park (where a Jewish journalist was attacked), when cries of antisemitism were being hurled at elected officials for singling out ultra-Orthodox Jews. To be fair, it wasn\u2019t only the ultra-Orthodox who were flouting social-distancing recommendations and face coverings (see: President Donald Trump), but plenty of concentrated Jewish communities were: Syrian Jews in Deal, New Jersey, according to The Wall Street Journal; the Five Towns on Long Island; the Persian Jewish community Great Neck \u2013 and the list goes on. And of the top 10 hot spots in the New York City area, there were a few non-Jewish ones such as in Queens (Corona, ironically), Staten Island, and the Bronx, but they were the exceptions to the rule. However, the close-knit, community-loving religious neighborhoods had a particularly high rate of COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJewish residents assert the media scrutiny is disproportionate compared to other neighborhoods and is due to the media\u2019s bias against religious Jews,\u201d Hamodia\u2019s English edition asserted. Tablet called antisemitism, too: Mayor Bill De Blasio \u201cscapegoated the Jewish community for the spread of COVID in New York, while defending mass protests,\u201d (conveniently omitting that there was no significant rise in cases traced to the masked protesters who took to the streets).<\/span><\/p>\n

A number of people came after me on social media, too, with their \u201cWhat about-ism\u201d (so-and-so is also doing the same thing), and saying how anyone like me who singles out the Jews is antisemitic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to understand that religious Jews stand out,\u201d a religious woman from Brooklyn wrote to me in a 20-point Twitter missive about the nuances of the local government\u2019s inept and uneven response.<\/span><\/p>\n

WAS I MISSING something? Did I not understand how important it was for religious Jews to congregate, to pray three times a day, to gather together in communal settings? Could I not see how unfair it was singling out Jews? I had to ask myself: Was I being antisemitic?<\/span><\/p>\n

As someone who went to day school for 18 years, topped off by seminary in Israel, not to mention having lived in Jerusalem as a citizen for more than seven years, I get antisemitism. I get that it\u2019s on the rise here in America (no, I won\u2019t engage in the \u201cwhat about-ism\u201d of which party is more responsible), and around the world. I understand the impetus to be on the lookout for it everywhere and to protect our people from danger.<\/span><\/p>\n

But after scouring the New York City case numbers by zip code (Yay! My hometown of Midwood is #1!), reading the religious press, and listening to the Twitter accusers, I still don\u2019t understand how it\u2019s wrong to call out communities where COVID-19 is on the rise. I also don\u2019t get how I am the antisemitic one for just wanting my people to wear masks, especially those who are so obviously identifiable to others. I actually want to stop antisemitism, to stop giving people ammunition for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDina demalchuta dina,\u201d I wrote to my online critics, referencing the ruling that the law of the country is binding. Even though there is no actual law to wear a mask (not yet, not under this president), the ruling applies to the customs of the land.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShame you weren\u2019t there to post that dina dimalchuta dina line on Twitter when the Jews were told to wear a star. If only we complied,\u201d @theRanterman wrote to me on Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would have laughed if it weren\u2019t so sad, equating a health recommendation to save lives (130,000 in the US) with a Nazi edict that killed six million Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

Masks = Hitler? Herein lies the danger of \u201cThe Jew Who Cried Wolf.\u201d Everything can\u2019t be Nazism, Hitler or even antisemitism. Sure, there are plenty of people who don\u2019t wear masks (Again, see Mike Pence and his infected staff), or who follow social distancing rules, and I sure hope their people call them out on it. The only thing I can do is worry about mine: Kol Yisrael areivim zeh la\u2019zeh \u2013 \u201cAll Jews are responsible for one another.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

These days, though, as the numbers in New York and New Jersey continue to climb (not as high as the rest of the country, thankfully), I am beginning to feel hopeful for my people. Great rabbis are calling on their communities to wear masks (even if they need to show rulings how to wear it on your face on Shabbat to not transgress the law against carrying on the day of rest). Lakewood rabbis are encouraging testing, too. It may not be enough to stave off the \u201cdark winter\u201d before a vaccine is available, but I hope by next Purim, the Jewish people can rejoice. La\u2019yehudim hayta ora v\u2019simcha: \u201cThe Jews had light and joy.\u201d So it should be for us.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2605 Amy Klein<\/strong> is the author of The Trying Game: Get Through Fertility Treatment Without Losing Your Mind.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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When Jews are targeted \u2013 and it\u2019s not antisemitism AMY KLEIN It was right before the High Holy Days. I was worried about the spread of the disease through the Jewish community, and I just wished we Jews would follow the clear science directives. Illustrative photo: Residents of Borough Park in Brooklyn, last month. (photo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81986"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81999,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81986\/revisions\/81999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}