I just wrote the following email to the writer of the piece here:
https://www.liherald.com/stories/lawrence-yeshiva-builds-hospital-to-treat-covid-19-patients,123758
Hi,
In your article about the Yeshivah in Lawrence that built an ad hoc hospital, you wrote,
"and that a good portion of the Jewish community was slow to stop gathering in large groups as the state mandated social distancing guidelines went into effect."
I would expect such a grave claim to be backed up by some sort of evidence.
In actual fact, all synagogues throughout Far Rockaway and the Five Towns were closed for the Shabbat of the 13th and 14th of March. (as reported on your own website:
https://www.liherald.com/stories/five-towns-orthodox-shuls-are-closed-because-of-coronavirus)
NY schools were only closed the following week.
Rabbinic leadership was unanimous, loud and clear in forbidding gatherings and encouraging social distancing far more stringently than NY state or NYC.
Yes, the virus hit our communities hard. The holiday of Purim on the 10th, when families and friends gather together to celebrate in large parties and we visit each other's homes the whole day sharing gifts, likely had a lot to do with the spread of the virus. NY was then limiting gatherings to 500 people. In hindsight, that was a deadly mistake by state and federal officials.
Yes, some individuals in our communities have flouted the rules, but so have members of every part of the population. You cannot paint with a wide brush and blame "a good portion of the Jewish community" for the sins of a few. There are hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews in NY, if you saw a video (or even 5) with 25 or 30 people that is hardly representative.
The same way it would be racist for me to say "a good portion of the African American community was slow to stop gathering in large groups as the state mandated social distancing guidelines went into effect." even if I could show you videos of public parks in NY filled with 50 or more African Americans playing basketball, handball and not practicing social distancing up until parks were closed last week. Those were individuals, and in no way representative of a community or group.
Your mistake is not just one of semantics, it has real life affect on people like me who are visibly Jewish. People are blaming Jews for the spread of the Corona virus, and anti semitism has increased in numerous cities in part due to lazy journalism.
I trust you will correct the record.
With respect,