By: Joelle Lefkowitz

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has no plans to shut down because of the pandemic – and that commitment is being mirrored by other port authorities around the world.

“Whether by air, land, rail or sea,” the local port authority declares, “we are dedicated to getting critical healthcare workers, first responders, and other essential workers where they need to be to address those most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and to keep the supply chains open to ensure goods and supplies keep flowing throughout the region.”

Its counterparts around the globe feel the same way.

At least 20 port authorities across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America signed joined together in signing a declaration in which they promise to remain in operation in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Begun by officials in Singapore, the declaration calls for ports “to boost collaboration so that operations are undisturbed, according to a statement on April 24. Members of the Port Authorities Roundtable that signed the declaration include Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Rotterdam, Tokyo and Los Angeles,” according to Crain’s New York Business.

Restrictions on crews “are among the unprecedented challenges wrought by the virus, which has ground major economies to a halt. At risk is the flow of goods such as food, medicine and energy via commercial shipping, which accounts for about 80% of global trade,” Crain’s added.

The port authorities committed to working together to ensure merchant ships can still berth at ports to carry out cargo operations and keep the global supply chain going, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said on Friday.

MPA chief executive Quah Ley Hoon said the industry is facing new challenges in this unprecedented period, making the joint pact all the more important. “Shipping is chartering into many unknowns and new challenges (during the coronavirus pandemic). Port authorities have to take enhanced precautions for their ports and on ships, as well as manage the stress faced by our seafarers and maritime personnel.”

She added, “We came out of the session gaining more valuable knowledge to ensure that necessities and essential medical supplies continue to be transported seamlessly across the world and into our respective countries.”

The NY-NJ authority is coordinating with federal, state and local partners, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other emergency and public health agencies to address public health and safety concerns.

Founded in 1921, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey builds, operates, and maintains many of the most important transportation and trade infrastructure assets in the country. The agency’s network of aviation, ground, rail, and seaport facilities is among the busiest in the country, supports more than 550,000 regional jobs, and generates more than $23 billion in annual wages and $80 billion in annual economic activity.

By: Randy Klagsmeier

Several laid-off waiters claim they are still waiting – not tables, but for their bosses to pay them.

In fact, the wait staff at New York City’s popular dining spot Nello are saying that they have not received tips that had been left for them before the pandemic hit.

The charge by the restaurant’s bartenders and waiters is that owner Thomas Makkos has stiffed them out of three paychecks. Together, they reportedly total in as much as $4,000 in pooled tips.

A trio of employees told the New York Post that “they’ve called Makkos’ office repeatedly. They said he told them the checks had been mailed out but nobody has received them. Nello let most of its 30 workers go March 19 when Gov. Andrew Cuomo told restaurants to close. It has been operating with a skeletal staff of four since then with only delivery and takeout available. The laid-off employees’ last checks were issued to them on Feb. 19.”

The claims stand in stark contrast to the upper-than-upscale reputation of the eatery, which boasts: “Where art, fashion, politics, entertainment, aristocracy, and finance converge to create a world of urbane sophistication, genuine leisure and cosmopolitan chic on Madison Avenue. Our casual elegance, northern Italian cuisine, and accommodating staff have brought famed clientele to our private dining room for over 25 years.”

“I am just really taken aback that someone with his money would treat us like this in the middle of the pandemic,” Anthony Vacca, 32, a Nello bartender, told the Post in an interview. “Some people have families to feed and they need that money.” A colleague added, “I’m running out of money and my anxiety is through the roof. The brazenness of [Makkos] not responding to us and not paying us is bizarre. There are other employees I know who are down to their last $100.”

The claims are, unfortunately, not unique, as restaurants around the country – in fact, around the globe – also suffer. “Local governments have shut down or severely limited restaurant operations in many cities and states,” reported foodandwine.com. “Even for those businesses whose operations aren’t limited by legislation, or weren’t several days ago, financial realities have dictated complete closures or shifts to takeout and delivery.”

Nor does the gradual reopening of various states necessarily mean a restaurant resurgence. “When restaurants are allowed to reopen, it won’t be the dining scene Charlotte is used to. There will be capacity limits, spaced-out tables, and masks covering the smiles of servers and hostesses. Some restaurants may stick to takeout for a while. Others may close altogether,” reported www.charlotteagenda.com.

By: Jared Evan

The NYC subway system has become a literal nightmare as ridership has drastically dropped because of the massive lay offs and job loss due to coronavirus pandemic; the trains are now heavily populated with dirty and sometimes deranged homeless people, spreading disease and destroying the subways seconds after they are cleaned.

As of press close to 90 MTS workers have died from the virus and thousands upon thousands have become infected.

‘I feel like the city is using the subway system as containment for the homeless. You have to assume that a lot of them have it. If they close the system what would they do with all these possibly infected homeless people?”, Canella Gomez, a train operator who is out on leave and is a union activist told the NY Post.

“The horror begins when it comes out to the public,” he said. “The minute it pulls into the station, you got the 100 homeless hanging out there. This is where they live. They get on there. They lay down. They use the bathroom. They vomit. Anything you can imagine gets done”, Gomez stated.

“It’s not fair. It’s not fair on people that have to go to work. It’s not fair on the homeless people,” she said. “Something has to be done. This mayor we have is just completely out of touch with reality as to what’s going on.”, a 56-year-old commuter told the Post.

“They’re coughing. They are peeing. They are defecating in the cars. We do not know if they have COVID-19. They’re up in our faces every single day as well as the other people who are taking the trains to and from work every day”, MTA conductor Adrienne Blocker told the NY Post.

Blocker told The Post that as soon as trains are cleaned, they immediately get dirty.

Sarah Feinberg, the MTA’s interim transit president, said this week that the agency was also fed up and that the city needs to do more. She claims de Blasio has been unresponsive to her requests for more assistance.

Recently an MIT economics professor and physician Jeffrey Harris, pointed to a parallel between high ridership “and the rapid, exponential surge in infections” in the first two weeks of March — when the subways were still packed with up to 5 million riders per day — as well as between turnstile entries and virus hotspots. He concluded the trains were a major disseminator of the virus.

It is without a shadow of a doubt that during February and March as the pandemic was starting to show its ugly face in NYC, the trains rapidly spread the disease. The large transportation system is unique to NYC

A quick look at the numbers, nationwide only 5% of Americans relay on public transportation to get to work, in NYC 39% use the subway, 23% drive alone, 11% take the bus, 9% walk to work, 7% travel by commuter rail, 4% carpool, 1.6% use a taxi, 1.1% ride their bicycle to work, and 0.4% travel by ferry, according to MTA numbers. That is a big difference between NYC and the rest of the country, over half of city residents take public transportation.

If something is not done about the homeless taking over the subway system, it could be deadly to open up the city again. Many homeless are dangerously psychotic and do not go to the doctor when they feel sick, they are spreading COVID-19, they have been the entire time & the leadership of NYC has refused to address the situation. While de Blasio is setting another city agency up which will be looking into race and coronavirus, maybe the homeless situation on the subways should be a priority instead. Eventually close to half the city is going to be on these coronavirus infested trains once more and will have to ride with potentially infected homeless.

By: Rusty Brooks

On Sunday morning Governor Cuomo updated New Yorkers the latest goings on with the coronavirus pandemic.

The governor cautioned again and again that the state was a long way from a full recovery, warning against a possible second-wave of the virus and noting on Sunday that 367 people had been killed by the virus in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 16,966 people in the state. This is the lowest number in many weeks

In laying out scenarios for a broader reopening of other businesses, Mr. Cuomo suggested that data would be evaluated in two-week increments, and that companies wanting to restart work would be individually evaluated to determine “how essential a service does that business provide and how risky is that business”, the NY Times reported.

With certain precautions, after May 15 construction projects and manufacturing jobs may be able to resume in certain regions, said Cuomo during an Albany press briefing, referring to the date through which his statewide shutdown order is currently in effect.

State officials are keeping an eye on “three basic dials” to determine exactly how much of the state’s economy to bring back online — and when to do it, Cuomo said.

Phase one of reopening will involve construction and manufacturing activities, and within construction and manufacturing, those businesses that have a low risk,” said Cuomo.

The state would then take two weeks to monitor for any flare-ups of the disease, before potentially moving on to the next step, Cuomo said.

“Phase two would then be more a business-by-business analysis,” said the governor.

That calculus would include looks at “how essential a service does that business provide, and how risky is that business,” said Cuomo.

Individual businesses cleared for reopening would have to thoughtfully consider what precautions they can take towards preventing a coronavirus resurgence.

He laid a heavy onus on businesses to develop their own plans for reopening, including outfitting employees with personal protective equipment, enforcing social distancing between employees and customers and instituting testing in the workplace, the NY Times explained

Mr. Cuomo’s comments offered hope for some upstate regions, the outlook for the New York City area seemed much more perilous, with countless calculations and safeguards being considered. Retail, tourism and hospitality industries — the bedrock of the city’s economy — would be difficult to restart quickly and without great care, the governor said, as would transportation and schools, which he has said he wants coordinated with neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut.

“They have to think about how they’re going to reopen with this quote-unquote new normal,” he said. “What precautions are they going to take in the workplace, what safeguards are they going to put in place.”

“The big factor here is what people do,” he said. “It depends on what people do, how smart, how disciplined they are through this whole process.”

By: Arthur Popowitz

Gym-goers in New York who are being charged for memberships they can’t use during coronavirus shutdowns are getting some relief.

The state attorney general says New York Sports Clubs and Lucille Roberts have both agreed to freeze memberships.

The gyms are also going to offer credits to members who have been charged while the fitness centers have been closed due to the pandemic

The NY Post reported: The gym’s parent company, Town Sports International, has agreed to refund and credit members for charges they incurred since NYSC and Lucille Roberts clubs were ordered by the state to close March 16 in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19, New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

On April 24, Attorney General Letitia James announced she has secured commitments from the parent company of NYSC and Lucille Roberts to institute a number of policy changes that will provide economic relief to members who were charged dues over the last six weeks.

“This is putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers who were being illegally charged for unusable gym memberships,” James said. “The commitments we secured from New York Sports Clubs and Lucille Roberts will ensure that members will not be left paying the bill and lifting the weight for NYSC’s financial straits as long as the gyms remain closed, Bronx Times reported.

“We will continue to monitor the company to ensure they comply with every commitment made,” James added.

In March, James led a multi-state coalition, which also included the attorneys general of Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, in opening an investigation into the billing practices of Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (TSI), the parent company of New York Sports Clubs, Lucille Roberts, Philadelphia Sports Clubs and Washington Sports Clubs, among other health and fitness subsidiaries.

The agreement is as followed:

• Freeze all New York Sports Clubs and Lucille Roberts memberships, effective as of April 8, at no cost to members.
• Issue credits to members for dues and fees paid for cancellation or freezing of accounts after March 16, when New York’s executive order directing the closure of health clubs first went into effect.
• Honor all cancellation requests submitted by April 30, without charging cancellation fees or requiring advance notice.
• Contact all consumers who filed complaints with the Office of the Attorney General to resolve those individual complaints.

The NY Post reported: Members expressed outrage that the clubs continued charging dues and fees despite the closures. They were also outraged over difficulty contacting the clubs to cancel and place accounts on hold.

In fact, at least two lawsuits were filed against the club for mishandling member accounts during the pandemic closures.

By: Rusty Brooks

During a time where small business are struggling to exist as the city’s tough but understandable, shelter in home orders, money still talks and NYC approved continued work on a controversial condo tower

The city’s Department of Buildings granted permission to the developers of the building at 200 Amsterdam Ave. to do “emergency work”, the NY Post reported.

On April 3, days after Cuomo’s directive to shut down nonessential job sites, there were 800 approved sites throughout the city, according to The City.

“To help slow the spread of COVID-19, the expert staff at the Department of Building have been hard at work implementing the Governor’s Executive Order to halt all nonessential construction in New York City,” said Andrew Rudansky, a spokesman for the DOB, adding after the ban last month the city shut down 35,000 construction sites citywide. “While the vast majority of construction sites are subject to this order, our diligent plan examiners are carefully reviewing and auditing every work application we receive to ensure that any needed essential work and necessary emergency work can still proceed during this shutdown.”

The NY Post reported: In February, a State Supreme Court judge ordered the developers — SJP Properties — to lop 20 stories off the nearly completed 52 story building after community groups fiercely opposed the project.

The NY Post previously reported: A State Supreme court judge ruled that the city must revoke the building permit for the nearly-completed, 55-story condo tower at 200 Amsterdam Ave. — and that its developers must remove a yet-determined number of floors because the structure exceeds zoning limits, according to the nonprofits behind the lawsuit.

“The directive to partially demolish the building is appropriate given the willingness of the developer to ignore every sign that their project was inappropriately scaled for the neighborhood and based on a radical and wildly inaccurate interpretation of the Zoning Resolution,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the Municipal Art Society, one of two groups that brought the suit.

One must wonder if it’s the powerful nonprofits who sued to reduce the size of this building who pulled some strings to get it done, or the developers themselves. None the less, all kinds of business are about to vanish, people’s entire lives up in smoke thanks to coronavirus, yet the city is still working hard for developers and connected leftist nonprofits.

The NY Post pointed out: In the case of 200 Amsterdam Ave., the DOB recently approved emergency permits, citing safety concerns due to high force winds and damage to partially installed equipment and water infiltration, the spokesman told The Post.

More than half of those who have contributed to the coronavirus plasma research program are from the hasidic community, said Dr. David Reich, president of the Mount Sinai hospital system.

By: Aaron Sull

Hasidim who have recovered from coronavirus are turning up en masse in New York City hospitals to donate blood plasma in an effort to help researchers find a treatment for the deadly disease, reported the Forward.

According to the report, the major influences behind their eagerness to help has come from the combined efforts of Dr. Samuel Shoham, an expert on infectious diseases in transplant patients at Johns Hopkins University, and his friend Chaim Lebovits, a hasidic shoe wholesaler from Monsey.

“I had no idea that he would drop everything and completely immerse himself in this,” Shoham told the news outlet. “[Lebovits] is giving his community members a chance to do something, now that they have this power in their body to make a difference.”

Lebovits took his friend’s request to heart and began creating a network of rabbis, religious organizations, virus researchers, and other health professionals to educate the Hasidic community about the benefits of donating plasma if they have recovered from coronavirus.

“The plasma isn’t just used for frum (religious Jews) or Jewish people. It’s for people in general. ” Lebovits told the Forward. “We as observant Jews have an obligation to preserve life, save life, and help as many people as we can.”

At least 3,000 recovered coronavirus Hasidic individuals have donated blood plasma, said Lebovits.

According to Dr. David Reich, president of the Mount Sinai hospital system, more than half of those who have contributed to the coronavirus plasma research program are from the hasidic community.

“The level of organization from the Orthodox community has been a step above,” he said.

(World Israel News)

read more at: www.worldisraelnews.com

Edited by: JV Staff

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to a New York City law restricting the rights of handgun owners to carry their weapons outside the home.

The 6-3 decision sends the case back to the lower courts — a move that pleases gun control advocates who were afraid that the conservative-majority court would rule against them.

The case centered on the New York City gun licenses that let handgun owners carry their locked and unloaded weapons only from their homes to several shooting ranges within city limits.

Attorneys for the city argued that the law was a matter of public safety and did not infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

A group of gun owners, backed by Trump administration lawyers, challenged the law, arguing that it was too restrictive.

But after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, New York amended the law to allow people to carry their guns to places outside the city, including second homes, gun clubs, target shooting ranges and where hunting is allowed.

The court decided not to hear the case Monday, saying the changes to the law makes the challenge moot, and sent it back to the lower court for any further challenges and arguments.

Three conservative justices — Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas — dissented.

“Petitioners got most, but not all, of the prospective relief they wanted,” Alito wrote, saying gun owners can still seek damages.

Gun control advocates are pleased the court decided not to rule on the case.

“Today’s decision rejects the NRA’s invitation to use a moot case to enact its extreme agenda aimed at gutting gun safety laws supported by a majority of Americans,” said Hannah Shearer, litigation director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

But the National Rifle Association, the country’s premier gun rights group, said the court Monday accepted what the NRA calls New York City’s “surrender” and admission of wrongdoing. It calls on the city to reimburse the plaintiffs’ legal fees.

Affordable Care Act ruling

In another case, the court ruled 8-1 Monday in favor of health insurance companies seeking $12 billion from provisions in the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” that allows them to collect losses incurred by offering coverage to uninsured Americans.

The court threw out a lower court decision that ruled Congress had suspended the payment provision.

Writing for the majority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said denying payment to the insurance companies would be a “bait and switch.”

“The government should honor its obligations,” Sotomayor wrote.

Alito was the only dissenter, writing that paying off “has the effect of providing a massive bailout for insurance companies that took a calculated risk and lost.”

The provision that would reimburse insurance companies for losses was in effect under the Affordable Care Act from 2014 until 2016.

    (VOA News)

By: Jared Evan

New York state mandate requiring nursing homes to accept those recovering from COVID-19, even if they still might be contagious, may have been a major contributor of senior deaths in nursing homes.

The NY Post reported that: city nursing homes ravaged by the coronavirus were warned about disturbing patterns of unsanitary behavior long before the deadly outbreak, The Post has found.

IT would seem clear that even before the coronavirus pandemic nursing homes in NY have had major issues.

The Post review of nursing home inspection reports from the state Health Department show 13 facilities with at least 10 coronavirus deaths as of Wednesday were cited for a total of 18 infection-control failures since March 2016.

The infractions were as recent as Jan. 31 at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in East Harlem, where 20 have died. The New Jewish Home on the Upper West Side, where 24 have perished, had the most violations of the sample, with three.

In total, 413 residents of those 13 homes have succumbed to the virus, among more than 2,000 citywide — a scourge Gov. Cuomo has declared a “feeding frenzy.”

So it would seem the State was quite aware of the conditions with nursing homes based on these fines, but they went ahead anyway by forcing these facilities to take more patients with COVID, facilities without the most sanitary conditions, creating a breeding ground for disease.

Three states hit hard by the pandemic — New York, New Jersey and California — have ordered nursing homes and other long-term care facilities to accept coronavirus patients discharged from hospitals. The policy, intended to help clear in-demand hospital beds for sicker patients, has prompted sharp criticism from the nursing home industry, staff members and concerned families, as well as some leading public health experts, NBC reported.

As it turned out, there was no actual need to force nursing homes to take patients with corona. Nursing homes are not hospitals. Literally they were being forced to keep recovering coronavirus patients to clear the way for extra bed space in hospitals. which were never needed.

Clearly this was a decision based on franticity, not logic. Most of the predictive models were wrong as to the extent of the corona virus, while NYC has seen around 13,000 deaths and 160K cases, these numbers were nowhere near the models government used to make decisions such as the nursing home debacle. There is no hospital space shortage, the Navy Comfort ship left NYC, because those extra beds were not needed.

“Nursing homes are working so hard to keep the virus out, and now we’re going to be introducing new COVID-positive patients?” David Grabowski, a professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School., told NBC news, he believes that states should create COVID-only facilities for recovering patients discharged from hospitals.

“The existing places that can really do this safely in terms of staffing and building space to keep them separate are in the minority,” he added.

In NY State, Governor Cuomo is playing the blame game. He is committed to running an investigation into NY nursing homes & shifted the blame to the facilities as opposed to the government.

At his Sunday press conference Cuomo insisted that nursing homes could transfer those ill with the virus to another facility if the centers lacked such things as quarantine space, proper protective equipment and staff.

Asked by a reporter at his daily briefing Sunday if there was anything contradictory about his statements, the governor replied, “No.”

“A nursing home can only provide care for a patient who they believe they can provide adequate care for,’’ Cuomo said. “If they cannot provide adequate care for a patient, they must transfer that patient.”

Cuomo’s response contradicts what is actually happening. The CEO of a hard-hit Brooklyn nursing home, where 55 patients have died from the coronavirus, told The Post last week that he had been warning state Health Department officials for weeks he had staffing and equipment issues — yet received little help. He made requests for patients to be removed but was denied.

In other words, nursing homes had to take recovering covid-19 patients, risking infection of their existing population of seniors and later request to transfer them? One must wonder if this scandal will quickly vanish in the pages and airwaves of NY media. Cuomo is a Democrat and is the hero in the media narrative, and when you are picked the Democratic party hero, scandals such as a deadly disease spread to our state’s seniors tend to vanish.

It “seems to be part of a broader trend in this instance. The ‘anti-other’—anti-Semitic, anti-Chinese, racist, xenophobic—rhetoric is everywhere,” says Jennifer Rich, executive director of the Rowan Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in New Jersey.

By: Faygie Holt

As 2019 came to close, the New York metropolitan region recorded extremely high number anti-Semitic incidents. Lawmakers, community leaders, law enforcement and ordinary citizens expressed the importance of tolerance and respect for all people.

It seemed to work for a short time, anyhow. Then the COVID-19 outbreak began, and as fears of the novel coronavirus ramped up, so, too, did anti-Semitism. This time, though, with people locked in their homes, people took to the Internet to spread their hate.

“Since the beginning of March 2020, we have been receiving disturbing information on accusations on Jews, Zionists and Israelis, as individuals and as a collective, for causing and spreading the coronavirus,” noted a report on global anti-Semitism issued Monday by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University and the European Jewish Congress.

Among those charges, many of which are surfacing online, are allegations that Jews have poisoned water wells—an accusation, the report notes, that has been around since Medieval times—that Jews or Israel is using the virus to destabilize the world economy and gain control; Jews or Israelis have already produced a vaccine to the virus and will sell it to the rest of the world for a large profit; the virus is punishment because Jews have not accepted Christ; and that Jews created the virus as a weapon against Muslims and Iran.

“During times of crisis, people too often turn to scapegoats, and such a troubling trend is beginning to emerge with COVID-19,” says Jennifer Rich, executive director of the Rowan Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Rowan University in New Jersey. “Anti-Semitism is up, and we can expect that battles over reopening the country and how the virus spread will conjure up old tropes. As people note that this is the worst international crisis since the Second World War and as we just marked Yom Hashoah, it is a reminder that we need to be especially vigilant in combating anti-Semitism wherever it arises.”

Rich adds that the rise in anti-Semitism related to the virus “seems to be part of a broader trend in this instance. The ‘anti-other’—anti-Semitic, anti-Chinese, racist, xenophobic—rhetoric is everywhere.”

A survey by the Anti-Defamation League, which was taken in January and released earlier this week, had identified online anti-Semitism as an already troubling trend even before the coronavirus outbreak.

It found one in seven Jews have experienced harassment online, and more than one in 10 has experienced a “severe form of harassment such as being physically threatened as a result of the religion.”

Online anti-Semitism has only increased in recent weeks and taken various forms, including “Zoombombing,” where an online programs being conducted by Jewish groups are interrupted by neo-Nazis or white supremacists who managed to log into the virtual program.

‘Latent anti-Semitism comes out at this time’

In the heavily Jewish towns of Monsey, N.Y., and Lakewood, N.J., people have taken to Facebook and Twitter almost daily to protest what they believe are mass violations by members of the Jewish community of local stay-at-home orders. Regardless of the original poster’s intentions in these claims, those who comment on these posts often ratchet up the tension.

In some cases, posters have threatened to take matters into their own hands. Just what that means, however, is left up to the imagination and leads to fear and concern among residents.

“We’ve seen this type of veiled threat that walks right up to the line and stops just short, and leaves it up to the interpreter to determine what they mean by that,” says Alexander Rosemberg, deputy regional director New York/ New Jersey region for the Anti-Defamation League. “But many in the community, when they see that, will be afraid and will see it as a direct threat much more than a veiled threat.”

Rosemberg says that while it is up law enforcement and prosecutors to determine the nature of a criminal offense, the concern centers on “the connection between the things that happen online and eventuality of things we may see expressing themselves in the real world because you may have individuals taking these statements and acting on them.”

In at least two incidents, law enforcement believed the online threats crossed the line of what is acceptable.

• A 43-year-old man from Howell, N.J., was arrested for making terroristic threats after he sent direct messages threatening to go into Lakewood and assault members of the Jewish community with a baseball bat.
• A 56-year old-female from Suffern, N.Y., in Rockland County, was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat. “In this particular case, the arrest was based on a bomb threat,” the Ramapo Police Department said in an online posting.

“No one should use COVID-19 as an excuse to promote anti-Semitic conspiracy theories or stereotypes,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal told JNS. “The virus does not discriminate in who it affects, and people must not use the virus as an excuse to discriminate or to foster hate.

While there have certainly been Jews in Monsey and Lakewood who have violated stay-at-home orders—some have even been arrested or issued summons by local authorities—the vast majority of residents have been following mandates and staying home, and have become increasingly concerned about the hate they are seeing being spewed online.

Joel Petlin, a resident of Monsey who also serves as the superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District, a Chassidic town some 25 miles away, says it’s as if someone “set up to play this gotcha game because they think if one Chassidic Jew is doing something, it’s the end of the world. I think it’s latent anti-Semitism that comes out at this time, and it doesn’t reflect that we are all in this together as one county … and we should be helping people rather than using this as an opportunity to attack.”

“There will always be a few outliers who don’t represent the group,” continued Petlin, “and because of those few bad actors, we are attacked online unfairly for those few random acts that don’t represent us.”

‘The best and worst in people’

Rabbi Avi Schnall, the New Jersey director of Agudath Israel of America, agrees.

“To say we are not listening to the rules because 10 people or 20 people got together, what about everyone else? There are 150,000 people [in Lakewood], and everything’s empty. The shopping plazas are shut down the schools are shut down the synagogues are shut down. It shows a certain amount of irresponsibility” to just report on Lakewood and suggests an “underlying bias for people to buy into it.

“If you’re going to report on Lakewood when 10 people are gathering,” he continued, “then you need to balance it by all the wonderful things are doing.”

Among those initiatives are food drives to minority communities, including Hispanic families, who have been out of work since the outbreak began with no paychecks and no way to feed their families.

“This pandemic has the capacity to bring out the best and the worst in people, and it has done so already,” says N.J. Attorney General Grewal, “but we will get through this if we join together.”

     (JNS.org)

By: Ariella Haviv

Seems that the Center for Disease Control & Prevention guidelines for isolation and social distancing during the Coronavirus pandemic is not exactly being adhered to scrupulously by some self-entitled New York business owners.

On Sunday, a former southerner who came to New York City to make his fortune selling high end men’s clothing on the upper east side named Eliot Rabin, has taken it upon himself to defy the uniform decision of authorities for all non-essential businesses to shutter in order to prevent the rapid spread of the deadly virus. Thus far, the COVID-19 infection has claimed the lives of over 12,000 New York City residents.

Rabin, 78 is the owner of the men’s apparel store named Peter Eliot. Speaking to the New York Post, Rabin declared, “I’m opening my doors come hell or high water.”

The bombastic haberdasher also told the Post: “If I do get in trouble, it will be for the right reasons. What are they going to do? Yell and scream at me? Fine me $500? It would be worth it, for me to be able to open my mouth and say this is not equitable. If they try to arrest me, I’ll say, ‘Am I in a police state now?’ They’re not going to arrest me.”

If the name Eliot Rabin rings a bill, this men’s clothing entrepreneur had thrown his hat into the ring of local politics in 2018 when he decided to run against veteran NYC Rep. Carolyn Maloney for the 12th congressional district. Rabin fell in defeat to the popular incumbent. According to sources who were familiar with this failed campaign for elected office, Rabin came into the race without a war chest of any kind.

The source told the Jewish Voice that, “Rabin did not have any money whatsoever to spend on his race for congress. Maloney is a strong incumbent who has spent many terms in Congress and if someone is going to come along and run against her, they had best have money to spend since they have no name recognition in local politics.” The source added, “What was even stranger is that Rabin actually thought he was not only going to unseat Maloney but that he was going to run for US Senate from New York, without any money either. Frankly, I think this guy is highly delusional.”

According to witnesses who attended a candidates’ debate between Rabin and Maloney, they found the exchange quite odd. Said one audience member, “I had thought Rabin was going to attack Maloney’s record, and I thought he would come in on the attack as most challengers do, but it was beyond strange. He just kept lavishing praise of Rep. Maloney and saying such absolutely wonderful things about her and her record in Congress. If I did not know any better, I would have thought that he represented Maloney’s public relations team rather than being her opponent.”

Rabin has erroneously claimed that he no choice but to terminate 12 employees of this alleged 21-member staff due to the rules imposed by the city concerning the closing of all non-essential businesses in order to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Sources close to the shop, spoke to the Jewish Voice on the condition of anonymity and said that Rabin had fired the 12 employees long before the coronavirus reared its ugly head. The source said, “Rabin had fired those employees when he closed his store on Madison Avenue over a year ago. What he is saying now is patently false.”

Rabin reopened his Upper East Side store on Wednesday and while foot traffic is fairly slow, the business owner told the Post that he hopes to provide “emotional essential support” to those who remain in the city and have not fled for the affluent suburbs. According to the Post report, Rabin thinks that the sting can be removed from the Coronavirus by serving his customers alcohol. Rabin told the Post that he offers his clientele “internal vaccinations: Chivas Regal, Kentucky bourbon — have a nip and you’ll feel better.

Moreover, it has been reported that Rabin does not require his customers to wear a mask while in his store and proudly boasts that he does not wear one either.

“We’ve applied for every loan, every break … to no avail. We got bubkes,” he told the Post. He also mused, “Why is a liquor store essential and I’m not?” Rabin told The Post.

“I’m fighting for the soul of my company and my people. I’m doing what I think is right to protect my business and employees from this disaster,” Rabin said, adding that none of his employees are put in danger while working. “I spray my Lysol like I spray my Chanel cologne.”

Some people however are appalled at what they term “Rabin’s arrogance and insouciance as it pertains to the health and well being of his employees and patrons.”

A retired administrator at the New York City Health + Hospitals organization said, “If the city applied such rules that would prevent non-essential businesses from remaining open for customers to walk in, there are excellent reasons for it. These rules are to protect everyone, be they asymptomatic or not from contracting this deadly virus. Why Mr. Rabin thinks that he is the exception to the rule in beyond me. I think it is highly irresponsible for him to interact with customers, employees and other staff in such close proximity during these dangerous times”.

The health official added, “I understand that all businesses are taking a major economic hit because of the virus closures, but if Rabin wants to exclusively sell his products online, I and others in the health community would have absolutely no problem with that. But for him to buck the trend, for him to thumb his nose at the safety rules to guard against the spread of this virus is truly reprehensible in every way.”