EXCLUSIVE: NYC officials specifically targeted Jewish schools with inspections during 2020 Covid lockdowns

Deputies Jackman and Decrescenzo were dispatched on Oct 14, 2020, to investigate if 17 Jewish schools in Orthodox areas of Brooklyn, including Midwood, Borough Park, and Bensonhurst were operating during a new round of COVID lockdowns specifically targeting Jewish communities.

Six of the 17 private religious institutions were found to be operating. However, no non-Jewish private or charter schools in the area were listed as having been inspected or cited.

The FOIL request asked for lists of schools or institutions that were sent to “the sheriff's office or any inspectors concerning the red/yellow/green COVID zones that would indicate a) specific schools and/or b) institutions targeted to be: -inspected or -reviewed or -given a summons.”

According to The New York Times, in early Oct 2020, former New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced plans to close all schools and businesses in nine ZIP codes, most of which are home to large Jewish populations, right before the holiday of Sukkot and Simchas Torah, during which large outdoor festivities were scheduled to occur.

Tablet Magazine reported that during a press conference on Oct. 5, former Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed the Big Apple’s COVID hot spots on gatherings of Orthodox Jews, saying, “Orthodox Jewish gatherings often are very, very large and we’ve seen what one person can do in a group.” He then displayed a 2006 picture of a Satmar funeral and stated, “We’re gonna close the schools in those areas tomorrow. And that’s that.”

Cuomo backtracked on closing businesses but instituted a color-coded zone system and threatened to close synagogues, saying, “We know religious institutions have been a problem. We know mass gatherings are the superspreader events. We know there have been mass gatherings going on in concert with religious institutions in these communities for weeks—for weeks.”

Cuomo demanded that Orthodox leaders meet with him and agree to social distancing rules and cooperate with a new state-level enforcement task force that deputized local-level health and law enforcement personnel.

DeBlasio and Cuomo had both allowed protesting and rioting that summer in the wake of the death of George Floyd but had demonized New York’s Jewish population for holding weddings and funerals and using city parks during the pandemic. Those protests included on that was nearly 10,000 strong outside the Brooklyn Museum in June 2020 for black trans lives.

DeBlasio had specifically threatened New York City’s Jewish population during COVID in April 2020, posting on Twitter following a large funeral, “My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.”

Tablet reported at the time “At 4,700 per 100,000, Borough Park has among the lowest per capita testing rates in New York City over the past two weeks, with 4.92% positivity."

In November, the US Supreme Court issued an injunction blocking Cuomo from enforcing 10- and 25-person occupancy limits on religious institutions in response to a suit filed by the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel. However, in advance of the ruling, Democratic officials had already begun rolling back the restrictions.