Time for a Yiddish lesson: Shanda, meaning a shame or disgrace; a scandal.
Right-wing voices throughout the media thought they found one with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tweet (4/28/20) about a Hasidic funeral that violated Covid-19 social-distancing rules. But their shoddy coverage was the real shanda.
The background is this: Some Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn, members of a strictly Orthodox religious movement, went forward with a public funeral for a rabbi that ended up not observing proper social-distancing rules. The mayor tweeted a defense of police actions that broke up the event, aiming it at “the Jewish community,” rather than just the specific sect who caused the trouble. It was terribly worded, and, out of context, it could be construed as insensitive to all Jews.
For the New York Times‘ Bari Weiss (5/1/20), New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted against lack of social distancing at a Hasidic funeral because he was “hankering for a scapegoat.”
The media went wild. Bari Weiss of the New York Times (5/1/20) called his comments inexcusable, and linked them to his supposed far-leftism. The Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post (4/29/20) covered the anger in response to the tweet. Two writers at the Wall Street Journal (4/30/20) summed up the mayor’s tweet as “by definition antisemitic.” John Podhoretz in the New York Post (4/29/20) called it a “new low” for the mayor.
These themes flared up in the conservative media, too. In one particularly sanctimonious piece, Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review (4/29/20) said the tweet forced her to recall her visit to Auschwitz. Breitbart ran several articles on the matter.
Let’s be clear: de Blasio’s tweet was boneheaded. And Jews were right to be worried. In a time of anti-government conspiracies, and when Asian Americans are already subjected to racist attacks because of the coronavirus’ Chinese origins, any blame aimed at “the Jewish community” for the crisis could further rile up tensions. The backlash de Blasio got from Jewish advocates wasn’t unwarranted, but there’s no evidence that this was a part of some abiding antipathy City Hall has toward New York City’s Jewish population.
De Blasio is from Brooklyn, formerly representing Park Slope in the City Council. Because Hasidic and other hard-core religious Jewish constituencies tend to vote in blocs, winning the favor of prominent rabbis and other community leaders is appealing for any New York City politician who eyes citywide office, and is especially critical for politicians from Brooklyn. (Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park are home to large religious Jewish communities.)
De Blasio’s dealings with Hasidic communities, thus, stem from political motivations that have helped secure him two terms at City Hall. If anything, de Blasio has been too cozy with these leaders, including on issues of public health, rather than dismissive or offensive. And his record shows this.
The New York Post (5/9/20) just recently uncovered that the mayor
was personally involved in a deal with Orthodox Jewish leaders to delay a long-awaited report on shoddy yeshivas in exchange for an extension of mayoral control of city schools.
The New York Times (4/15/19) had already documented last year how critics saw politics behind de Blasio’s slow response to a measles outbreak among Hasidic Jews. The paper’s editorial board (12/25/19) also criticized de Blasio’s mishandling of the yeshiva issue, saying at the time that city investigators “couldn’t determine whether Mayor de Blasio had personally authorized the delay,” but “concluded that the administration had interfered with the Education Department’s investigation into the yeshivas.”
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (5/4/20), outlining de Blasio’s long connection to religious Jewish communities, reported:
While campaigning for mayor in 2013, de Blasio said he would look into easing regulations around metzitzah b’peh, a circumcision practice in which blood is sucked from a baby boy’s genitals that was linked to several cases of herpes in the newborns. The Bloomberg administration had required parents to sign a consent form notifying them of the risks involved in the practice, but de Blasio viewed that as onerous. The move earned him an endorsement from a faction of the Satmar Hasidic community.
And Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, hardly a left-wing organization, noted in the New York Daily News (5/4/20) that while de Blasio could have had better messaging in his response to Hasidic Jews, there was some important context here:
While a few in the Orthodox Jewish community continue to flaunt social distancing orders — even Israeli Defense Forces have had to crack down on Orthodox gatherings — the order to stay at home and practice social distancing applies to all, no exceptions. De Blasio should have known it is better to broaden his appeals to New Yorkers than lump all Jews together. Anyone violating the social distancing edict should be called to account.
National Review‘s Kathryn Jean Lopez (4/29/20): “When I saw the mayor of New York’s tweet last night, all I could think about was my one visit to Auschwitz a few years ago.”
For right-wing voices in the press, de Blasio’s institution of universal pre-K, his relatively progressive campaign for mayor in 2013 and his support for Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid make him a high-level symbol of the Democrats’ progressive flank. In this case, right-wing agitators in corporate media used de Blasio’s poorly worded tweet to advance the theory that, alongside the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter and constant antisemitic hate from the Trumpian right, a liberal like de Blasio was similarly an enemy of the Jews. It was a ham-handed move to link liberalism with antisemitism. In the process, these journalists revealed that they knew little about the political relationships religious Jewish communities in New York City have with city government, which is city beat reporting 101.
But explaining the real political context would get in the way of drawing a false equivalency between an awkward tweet and the weaponized antisemitism of the far right.
If “Jews” trends on the web that eats up a lot of attention. There interested parties who do not wear their religious garments in public, but otherwise could be culpable for spreading racism and enjoy the distraction.
Nicely dichotomous turn of phrase Ari: between an awkward tweet and the weaponized antisemitism of the far right.
you’re sort of right. But this isn’t a right vs liberal thing. Most Jews were offended, since most comply and many non Jews flout the rules as well, but only the Jews were singled out. If you read comments on line, this fed a lot of vile antisemitic attitudes.
De Blasio did cozy up to the Hasidic community to get their votes. Then he expressed his gut reaction to feeling betrayed by them. That phrase says a lot. He’s no friend of the Jewish community, He wants to buy the Hasidic block vote by ignoring anything they do. This includes allowing Hasidic schools to provide no secular education while lying to others in the same community who want better schools with promises of change and no intention of following up.There are no principles to his behavior. His policies are about buying allegiance. His impulsive show of rage expressed that. His friendship only goes as far as he can control people . As long as he gets what he wants from them, he shows no concern about the good of the greater community. And when he doesn’t get what he wants, he has a tempter tantrum. I don’t think he’s really an antisemite. I think he’s just an unprincipled politician.
How can he be “sort of right” when he said exactly the same thing you did?
Boy, people REALLY have to twist their moral compass off its post to get excited about this, but I guess the outrage-trollers were up to the task. The above displayed tweet clearly states that it’s addressed to “..the Jewish community, and all communities..” so it’s NOT exclusively addressed to Jews, and — as AP notes — in the context of this being a reaction to the Hasidic funeral situation, DeBlasio was obviously referring (clumsily) to the Hasidic sect who had the run-in with the police. Right-wingers trying to equate this with antisemitism or even Auschwitz (huh?) just reveal how bereft of SERIOUS issues they really are, and how desperate they are to create a false equivalency in order to distract from their numerous and negative policies.
Ari, you obviously don’t get it.
The words were taken “out of context” across the board. Not just by the right. Not just by the left. Not just by journalists. Across the board.
And those words contributed directly to antisemitism in New York City. They have already directly influenced a couple of people to physically assault religious Jews, screaming at them that “the mayor says” that they are spreading the coronavirus.
De Blasio is absolutely at fault for painting the target on the backs of the entire Jewish community, the overwhelming majority of which has implemented social distancing and is doing its best to avoid getting sick or spreading the disease.
De Blasio is a fair target for ire in this matter, particularly after his lukewarm and useless actions and words a few months ago, as thugs were beating religious Jews in the streets of New York City.
Don’t paint this as some kind of dishonest witch hunt; Jews around the country are legitimately alarmed by the rise in antisemitism that has accompanied this pandemic after a sharp increase in antisemitism on the far left, the moderate left and the far right in 2019. It is perfectly reasonable that Jews would find fault in the mayor’s targeting of the Jewish community as a whole, especially given his recent history of overall disinterest in protecting that community from violence and intimidation.
I usually vote for Democrats, myself. I can’t stand Trump. I don’t think De Blasio is inherently antisemitic. But regardless of his background, he plainly has little interest in preventing attacks on Jews. He deserves to be slammed in the media, without Jews from the left attempting to rise to his defense while he himself does little to show that he has learned from this situation.
Meanwhile, the media continues to shout about the tiny minority of Hassidim who are still not following the guidelines. Make no mistake: that tiny minority are idiots. But the media – with a few recent exceptions like the NYT plasma donation article – makes little effort to show that 95%+ of Jews ARE following the health guidelines, and are also doing everything they can to help others. Maybe you should be writing about how extremely biased and negative is the media coverage of Jews re COVID-19, rather than attacking those journalists who are actually bothering to stand up for the Jewish community.
This post, and the comment community here, are wasting FAIR’s precious resources.
What grave, utterly depraved, momentous affront to all matters human did a mayor commit in a “tweet”?
He used the phrase “Jewish community” when referencing the actions of a sect that presumably belongs to the “Jewish community.” Oh, the horrors!
Ari Paul, you are so right. The phrase “Jewish community’ must never be used by anyone, anywhere, unless you – well wait a second, is there such a thing as a “Jewish community”? Is there such a thing as a “community” at all, of anything, anywhere?
Outrage! Gnashing of teeth! Rage commenting over grievous threats to community – whoops, there goes that word again. Damn you DiBlasio!
I stand corrected – FAIR must always call out all mayoral turns of phrase, everywhere and anywhere, so that all of us can sleep tight without the specter of keyboard generalizations that are the world’s number one problem.
Thank you for clarifying the mayor’s record. The danger for me was the generalization in the tweet. There is a church in the Midwest that was protesting funerals of military members killed and in action. Should all Christians be criticized for the position of one group. When protesters marched against police shooting unarmed youth, they chanted death to pigs or similar. Does that represent all people against the excesses of some police? The uninformed do not understand the size of the Hasidic community compared to all in the ‘Jewish Community.’ This inflames antisemitic perceptions for many. Someone who is so involved and aware should at least acknowledge the scope of his tweet is not directed at all members of the Jewish community.
In answer to your plaintive questions, of course, yes, all Christians should be criticized severely for belonging to a group that gives such protective harbor to abusers, killers, and fussy neatniks. After all, what’s so-so media for?
By the way, are FAIR critics instructed to never respond to their own critics here? Is it to much for them to defend their jottings when half-assed? Ari Paul? Justin Cho? Too much for you to try to engage with the hoi polloi? Criticism that never deigns to examine its own shortcomings?
Martin, is it too much caffeine in your diet? Insults make you feel better? Generalizations are too simplistic? I certainly hope you contribute financially to FAIR since your replies appear to be using more resources. FAIR is putting together their perspective of how corporate media keeps the ‘people’ uninformed. I welcome it much more than long winded critiques which are fairly meaningless. But I should thank you for making my point clearer. Generalizations, stereotypes, categorizing all FAIR commenters in one swipe is clearly a representation of gen H or gen I individuals (Hatred and or intolerant)
Sure, we should all contribute to FAIR. How much? How much to FAIR, and how much to the internees of Gaza? How much to bombing victims’ families in Yemen?
You are obviously a fine, upstanding person, selfless and kind to one and all having banished all anti-fascist hate from your mind, and being tolerant of all thoughts, ridiculous or sublime.
But this still leaves the young outragees of the FAIR laptop giving out tempests without deigning to engage their own critics.
Shonda Rimes is the real shanda, of course.
Interestingly, the same religious group in Israel is defying the same rules that both Israel and New York have for keeping a safe social distance.
I am also so weary of the term anti-semitic. In Israel, the semitic people are the Arabs. And thousands of years later, as anyone can join the Jewish religion—-the idea of anyone disagreeing with certain Israeli groups automatically becoming ANTI-semitic , just seems silly.
Absolutely correct, Wondering Woman- you are a voice of sanity here.
Care to disagree, Ari Paul?
Oh, sorry to interrupt your lunchtime search for more over-broad generalizations across today’s global mediscape.
Remember, to be a “critic” today means never, ever stooping to enter the lion’s den of commenter nobodies. Who cares what they say, right?
One time is a mistake. Twice is a concern. Three times is a real shanda.
He just made another “boneheaded” tweet yesterday towards Jews.
Wow! You fithy jooz really don’t miss a chance to whine, do you?!? Jews need to be attacked and killed on the streets everywhere on the planet!