De Blasio apologizes for approach to COVID spike in Orthodox Jewish communities

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he regretted how he handled enforcement of COVID safety rules in Orthodox Jewish communities and vowed to increase communication. Photo by Michaell Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

By Rachel Vick

Mayor Bill de Blasio apologized Tuesday for how he approached a failure to comply with  COVID-19 restrictions in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, citing a lack of communication with leaders and residents.

COVID-19 rates have spiked in neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations, but  leaders and residents say public health enforcement and media coverage has targeted Jewish New Yorkers while going easy on other groups.

“I look back now and understand there was just more dialogue that was needed,” de Blasio said. “I certainly got very frustrated at times when I saw large groups of people still out without masks, but I think more dialogue would have been better. So I certainly want to express my regret that I didn't figure out how to do that better.”

De Blasio’s remarks came a day after he met with leaders from Orthodox communities in Queens and Brooklyn. 

Several of the neighborhoods, including parts of Central Queens and Far Rockaway, have been subject to state business and school closures since Oct. 7 as a result of the rising COVID rates.

De Blasio said the conversation demonstrated that “we need to hear each other more and understand each other more.”

“What the meeting really helped me to appreciate is that so many people in the community have suffered and they need to know that we, as the city government understand their suffering, understand the difficulties the community has gone through, understand the fears that people have rightfully of discrimination,” said de Blasio. 

Leaders in the cluster zones said they feared that enforcement and coverage bordered on anti-Semitic, pointing to the long history of scapegoating Jews for past epidemics like the Bubonic Plague. 

But regardless of their religion, race or ethnicity, all New Yorkers must wear masks, said Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld at a press conference organized by the Jewish Community Council earlier this month. 

“We have to address our community and impress the importance of masking and social distancing, and the reaction to it which has been disproportionate,” said Schonfeld.