Dear YWN, I wanted to let your readers know of the following disturbing incident. I was shopping in Dollar Tree located at 67 St Georges Ave, Roselle, NJ Oct. 7. While on the line to pay, there were 2 adult customers before me on line that weren’t wearing any masks at all. The Cashier, “Joan” totally ignored the fact that they weren’t wearing a mask. At the same time, a Jewish family was checking out at a nearby register and the entire family aside for their 3-year-old child were wearing masks. My cashier “Joan” immediately ran over to the other register (while keeping me waiting) and told the other cashier to make sure that the 3-Year-old child puts on a mask.

For months, protestors were in the streets in NYC, rioters destroyed countless stores and caused millions of dollars in damages while the government largely watched and allowed dismay in the city. COVID is a worldwide pandemic which must be taken seriously by all communities – yet the Jewish community is the only one which has repeatedly been threatened and criticized by Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio – a blatant double standard.

As the father of Jacob Kornbluh, I wish to express my horror and disgust at the trolls and vile comments and curses directed towards Jacob. Some comments even incite others to murder him for being a Moiser. All you need is one crazed person to take that “Mitzva” on board Chas V’esholom. Has anyone verified the definition of what Mesira is? Suppose a Jew climbs into an apartment building in the dead of the night with an intent to steal and possible injure you or your family in the process, would you consider it Mesira to call Police?

“Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jews burn masks in violent protests.” So ran a recent Washington Post headline. This stands in stark contrast to the great lengths the media went to cast Black Lives Matter protests as “mostly peaceful ” despite it resulting in more than a billion dollars in damages, making it the costliest riots in history. While only a handful out of the several hundred protesters got physical in the altercations over the past few nights, it is nevertheless cast as the defining part of the event by malicious media and politicians. When asked during a press conference why no arrests had been made, de Blasio said, “There is something here that needs to be fixed right away.

Mr. Tischler is a rabble rouser of the worst type, calling government officials who generally respect, and assist, the Jews of NY, horrific names is crass, and is the WORST type of chilul Hashem. This is NOT what Hashem expects of us in galus; he is appealing to the lowest element, trying to garner votes, but is ultimately making things worse for those who earnestly, and correctly, understand that large capacity shuls can safely host more than 10 men inside. Let Agudah, with saner minds and avoiding use of bad language, try handle this problem. But, where are the various Rebbes? They need to speak out against their followers who are not using their seichel (those who have some) when demonstrating incorrectly.

Dear YWN, I am very disturbed by what happened last night in Boro park. As much as Cuomo is discriminating against the Jewish community, why are we stooping to the levels of BLM to disrupt traffic and make fires in the middle of the road. Here are a couple of reasons why this behavior is counter-productive to what we need to achieve: 1. With all the crowding and non mask wearing, the virus can spread quickly through our community and harm those elderly and immuno-compromised Rachmana L’itzlan. 2. When the governor sees that no one is complying with basic rules such as wearing masks, why does that make him more comfortable lifting the restrictions?

Dear members of Lakewood, A few months ago, if anyone would have told me we would be heading toward March again, or even a tiny fraction of the horrors that happened, I would never have believed you. Purim was a super spreader before we even knew that term. We were innocent, we were whole. We didn’t know what it was to turn on our phones after Shabbos or Yom Tov and read many names next to candles. Names of men and women who left behind families, who often died alone, who sometimes suffered immeasurably. We didn’t understand that this was a terrible virus, or see its mechanism of spreading, its deadly tentacles. We didn’t comprehend that large, indoor gatherings can make hundreds sick.

To Our Community, My wife recently tested positive for COVID-19 after spending all summer in the mountains. After testing positive for the virus, we let everyone know in our bungalow colony so that they can get tested and quarantine if necessary. Surprisingly nobody got tested, and everyone is just going on with business as usual. When I asked people if they are not concerned, they said that they actually are pretty certain that they have COVID-19 because they have all the symptoms, they just don’t want to get tested because then they will have to quarantine. How selfish can people be, knowingly infecting other people just so that they aren’t inconvenienced? Is their memory so short? Don’t they remember all those almanos and yesomim of a few months ago?!

Dear YWN staff, First off I would like to thank the YWN personnel for their extensive coverage over what the Gedolei Yisrael have instructed during this most difficult period of Coronavirus. However, being that it can clearly be seen how our Gedolim are advising us to be stringent when it comes to matters of safety and hygiene (i.e. wearing masks, social distancing, and washing hands), I think it is necessary to bring another point to the forefront. Concerning those who choose not to wear masks even in situations where we have clearly been instructed to, for such people there is no point in rebuking. In the best case scenario we can be דן לכף זכות that they are following the directions of their respective דעת תורה.

Dear YWN. Two manila envelopes arrive in the mail yesterday unexpectedly, so I opened them up – and to my surprise and bewilderment, they were REPORT CARDS! Yes, You read correctly. REPORT CARDS. Perhaps the wonderful readership of YWN can explain to me and the rest of the outraged parents what was the point of sending reports cards to “grade” the students who were all in quarantine? What exactly did they base these grades on? Who do these Mosdos Hatorah consult with? No one apparently. I have dug around and learned that many schools were in touch with leading Gedolim along with professionals and were advised NOT to issue report cards based on the student’s performance during COVID-19.