Orthodox mom-and-pop shop owners join movement to let them reopen in New York
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Ari Feldman May 18, 2020
Orthodox Jewish business owners have joined in calls for New York to allow small businesses to operate, pushing back against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has repeatedly said he will not risks lives in order to reopen the economy.
Orthodox business owners are sharing their personal stories through videos on social media, using the hashtag #ReopenNY.
“It’s not because we’re naive. It’s not because we don’t understand the horrific toll this virus has taken,” Chaim Homnick, a resident of the heavily Jewish Five Towns area of Long Island, and who runs an Orthodox girls summer camp and a tutoring business, said in one video. Homnick said that both of his grandparents died in April. (He does not specify if it was due to Covid-19.)
“If you can shop at Target for pants, or Walmart for toys, why a can’t small business owner safely and cautiously reopen here in New York, like has already begun in other states?” Homnick said, blaming Cuomo for making reopening a political issue.
Politicians that represent neighborhoods with large Orthodox constituencies have also taken up the issue, pushing back at rules instituted at the city level by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
If it’s acceptable to gather this many people together for a photo op, why are our small businesses still shuttered?
Healthcare workers are heroes.
You know who else is a hero?
Every business owner who shut down & took tremendous losses in order to keep others safe. 1/3 https://t.co/NE2Vcgk5Sx
— Councilman Deutsch (@ChaimDeutsch) May 17, 2020
In a feature story about the videos, the Orthodox media outlet the Yeshiva World News included a note that Jewish tradition considers it imperative to give someone charity when they are at the risk of losing their home or business.
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
