“We Need to Rebuild Our Lives”

“I thought I was going to die,” he recalled. The program provides the bulk of his annual income, and its elimination meant a loss of over a half million dollars. But he understood the need for precautions — the coronavirus was already spreading in the country, and a hotel was no place to be during a pandemic.

Similarly, small businesses throughout New York City were forced to close their doors as the state became the epicenter of the virus in the United States. But now more than a month has passed without any significant rise in COVID-19 cases, and a coalition of Jewish business owners say the closure no longer makes sense. Members of the coalition are especially frustrated that large retailers have been allowed to reopen while they have not. To pressure the city to ease the closure order, these owners have formed a group, Re-Open New York, and have slowly opened their doors for business, contrary to city and state guidelines.

“Nobody here is a vigilante,” Backman said. “But we feel that the government has destroyed our businesses by favoring large, big-box stores that sell all the same products we do and forcing everybody to go to those stores at our expense. The summer season is quickly evaporating. Most of our stores bought all stocks months ago and are unlikely to survive. All they keep on offering us is more loans and more loans, but you have to have a business to have a loan. New York is going to look like a ghost town by the time the mayor is done with this horror show.”

The group was formed three weeks ago, after Crown Heights jewelry store owner Mrs. Simcha Minkowitz grew frustrated with the city’s slow response to the struggles of small businesses. She and her husband Zalman had opened their store, Amor Fine Jewelry, 18 months ago and were trying to establish themselves in a competitive market. But then the coronavirus hit and the Minkowitzes took a “very big hit,” losing a quarter of their annual income.