The right to register our feelings at the ballot box is a sacrosanct cornerstone of government. We ignore it at our peril
Along with the devastation wrought by COVID-19 — the levayos, the sirens, the constant calls for Tehillim — came bigotry by politicians and the public. The Orthodox community was subjected to disproportionate lockdown in the city, with our shuls, yeshivos, and parks unfairly shuttered.
As a community, we confronted together the rapidly spreading coronavirus in the spring of last year. Together, we closed our shuls and schools. Together, we took the difficult step of walling ourselves off from each other. Together, we isolated ourselves, creating new terms like “porch minyanim” and “phone classes.”
It is now time to join together to confront the other virus — that of elected officials who took advantage of the public health crisis to mistreat our community with impunity.
Our summer camps were closed, leaving tens of thousands of children with nowhere to rejuvenate after many difficult months. We witnessed the extraordinary scene of our elected officials being forced to cut the padlocks of our parks, which were shuttered to children who wanted to play outdoors amid the lockdown.
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