The Honorable Bill de Blasio Mayor of New York City City Hall New York, NY 10007 Dear Mayor de Blasio, I’m writing to you today regarding the controversy around the funeral of Rabbi Chaim Mertz, the Tweets after the funeral, and the uproar that followed. I want to preface my words with a few crucial points. Number one: as someone who is somewhat involved in community affairs in Williamsburg I know firsthand that any accusation on you Mr. de Blasio of Anti-Semitism cannot be further from the truth. Anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant of the facts or straight-up lying. The fact is, that you Mr. Mayor has been a true friend to our community from the first day you entered the office and continued in this vein ever since. You have been criticized harshly at times for standing up for us, our way of life and rights as American citizens, and let there be no doubt about it, we acknowledge it and are tremendously appreciative. Number two: All of that said, and all that I will address further in this letter – even if all my upcoming points are wrong and/or invalid – still cannot excuse the singling out of a community even in regular times, let alone in a time that the community is scapegoated on this issue all over social media with straight-up lies and fabrications and has lately unfortunately suffered so much hate and attacks in general even before all this. That said, as our sages say “he had succumbed to anger, he had succumbed to mistaking”. We understand the stress you are under, and we understand how one can lose is cool at any time for any reason let alone in such trying times. It’s not an excuse, nor an approval for the tweets, just the realization of the limits of a human being, and the ability to understand and forgive. Now, after that Preface let me get to the point I want you, Mr. Mayor, to know and understand. Please understand, I’m not trying to justify what happened at the funeral. It should never have happened, and you have all the right to be frustrated, we honestly all are. The result of what happened that night is unacceptable and I can assure you that you will be hard-pressed to find a handful of individuals in the community who say otherwise. But, I do want to point out the facts on the ground that induced the calamity. If we honestly study what preceded, although it doesn’t change the unquestionably bad result, it does explain how it came to be. Moreover why we as a community were “so hurt” to be singled out. Something that honestly should’ve not happened in any case, but only becomes more hurtful once we know the following facts. First, the funeral was planned in conjunction with the NYPD. Streets were blocked, notices were distributed throughout the community asking people that were planning to participate to strictly follow the rules of the city and state to the letter, and the people were wholeheartedly prepared and willing to do so. Secondly – and this is the most crucial point- the funeral organizers planned out the event in detail to ensure that it won’t violate any of the guidelines set out by the […]
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