- A Jewish journalist says Orthodox Jews assaulted him in Brooklyn.
- Jacob Kornbluh, the national politics reporter for the Jewish Insider, said he was “hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members” during a protest over coronavirus restrictions.
- The incident occurred at protests following a decision by Governor Andrew Cuomo to enforce a local lockdown, closing schools and nonessential businesses.
- During the protests, involving hundreds of Orthodox Jews who set a bonfire of face masks ablaze in the middle of the street in Brooklyn’s Borough Park.
- Leaders have called for communal peace.
A Jewish reporter said he was attacked in Brooklyn as tensions mount among New York’s Orthodox Jews over the best response to the coronavirus, which has hit the community hard since March.
Jacob Kornbluh, the national politics reporter for the Jewish Insider, covered the second night of protests on Wednesday in the neighbourhood, opposed to a new local coronavirus restriction imposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Kornbluh, also a religious Jew, has been prominent in warning the close-knit community about the public health dangers of COVID-19.
Kornbluh said a mob, incited by rabble-rousers, spotted and surrounded him. He said on Twitter that he was “hit in the head, and kicked at by an angry crowd of hundreds of community members” at a protest in Borough Park, a southwestern region in Brooklyn, New York.
He was also called a Nazi and spat on by his attackers.
Read the article by Julian Kossof in Business Insider Australia.