Cutting playground chains, NY Orthodox lawmakers escalate battle against closures

A video posted to Twitter on Monday, June 15, 2020, shows people in Williamsburg cutting off a lock to a park. Image by Twitter/ReaganBattalion
(JTA) – They protested the mayor’s decision to keep the parks closed on Sunday. By Monday, they vowed to cut the chains of the park gates themselves if Mayor Bill de Blasio didn’t accede to their requests.
In a tweet Monday evening, New York State Sen. Simcha Felder said he and two other Orthodox lawmakers, City Councilman Kalman Yeger and state Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, would open the parks themselves if the mayor refused to do so.
“We’ve asked nicely and waited patiently. We’ve made every logical argument. The people have spoken and they’re running out of patience,” he wrote.
We’ve asked nicely and waited patiently. We’ve made every logical argument. The people have spoken and they’re running out of patience. If @nycmayor won’t open ALL our playgrounds @SEichenstein @KalmanYeger and I will cut the locks open ourselves.
— Senator Simcha Felder (@NYSenatorFelder) June 15, 2020
The statement came as videos circulated on social media showing a local Orthodox radio personality, Heshy Tischler, cutting the chains off the gates of a Brooklyn park, to the cheers a crowd of adults and children. Tischler had previously organized rallies in support of opening the parks.
The actions drew support from multiple Republican lawmakers locally and farther afield. Joe Borelli, a New York City Council member from Staten Island, tweeted that he stood with Felder, Eisenstein and Yeger. “Do it!” he wrote.
And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican who has repeatedly criticized New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, offered his support for Tischler’s actions. “Bravo,” he wrote, retweeting a video of Tischler cutting the chains of the park gate.
In recent weeks, some Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn have become increasingly impatient about the slow reopening. Some see a lack of consistency in enforcement of social distancing as thousands of protesters march through the city while the memory of the mayor criticizing the Orthodox community for assembling for a funeral is still fresh.
On Thursday, Orthodox children rallied, blocking the streets in two Orthodox neighborhoods and calling for camps to be opened this summer. On Sunday, protesters gathered to demand that the city reopen playgrounds, led by the three Orthodox lawmakers.
“This is not a situation where if you close the playgrounds that children are staying in their homes,” Felder said at the protest Sunday, according to AMNY. “They are playing outdoors and they are playing in places that are not safe.”
The lawmakers have accused the mayor of treating the Orthodox community differently, pointing to parks in other neighborhoods in the city that are being used openly, even as closure remains the official policy. “There is a double standard, we are supposed to be living in the fairest city in the world — why are some parks open and some not?” Yeger asked Sunday.
On Monday morning, city workers were seen welding the gates to one city park in Williamsburg shut. The welding was later replaced by chains but quickly drew Yeger’s disapproval.
Today’s “essential work” by @NYCParks?
On May 18th, at @NYCCouncil hearing, I asked the Parks Commissioner how long it takes his agency to repair its broken sidewalks. His deputy admitted, on the record and under oath, that it could take as long as 7 years.
SEVEN YEARS. https://t.co/VFt8WfqhWk— Kalman Yeger ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם (@KalmanYeger) June 15, 2020
Not long after the welding was removed and the park chained shut, a video was posted to Twitter showing Tischler cutting the chains on a park gate. It was unclear where the video was taken.
The Jews have survived over 3500 years, and faced horrific evil; and I think they’ll easily survive DeCommiohttps://t.co/mSKyCXfTmK
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) June 15, 2020
Another video from the scene showed City Councilman Joe Lentol speaking to a group at the park and standing next to Tischler.
“I want to thank all of the people for coming out and opening up this park,” Lentol said. “Tomorrow we go and open up the camps!”
The post Vowing to cut playground chains, NY Orthodox lawmakers escalate their battle against COVID-19 closures appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.