By COLlive reporter
Boro Park activist and Jewish radio host Heshy Tischler brought his fight to open New York City parks for children to the Crown Heights neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon.
Tischler, a vocal critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio, has been protesting the continued shuttering of the neighborhood parks since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. He has publicly busted open locks and chains on the gates of parks in the past few days in defiance of the Mayor’s orders.
Following opening parks in Williamsburg and Boro Park, Tischler’s protests have gone viral, gaining national attention.
Several notable Republicans weighed in on Twitter Monday night with statements of support for Tischler and the protesters, JTA reported
“Bravo,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy wrote: “Total double standard → New York’s mayor appears to be discriminating against Jewish funerals, schools, and playgrounds in enforcing his coronavirus shutdown.”
Standing at the entrance to Brower Park on Park Place between Kingston and Albany Avenues, surrounded by eager and excited children, Tischler had a message for Mayor de Blasio.
“Mr. Mayor, come get me!” he said. “I’m in Crown Heights,” referencing the Mayor’s words in a press conference today in which he said, “We’re not going to allow people to take the law into their own hands. It just doesn’t work. So people are not allowed to open up a playground that is not yet available to the public.”
“I want you to know, you said I’m damaging your property – I just unscrewed the bolt,” he said to the camera of COLlive.com, offering the Mayor to come to his house to pick up the lock.
“This is my town, this is our park, and it’s my city,” he said. “This park is never going to close again, Mr. Mayor, I promise!”
He later went to Wingate Park on Rutland Road, and unlocked the gate there as well.
Before he unlocked the gate, Tischler pointed out that near the locked playground, another section of the park is completely open, with about 100 people exercising and relaxing, “many of them not social distancing,” he noted.
Earlier in the day, a group of local residents opened Lefferts Park, and families enjoyed playing there until the police arrived and asked them to disperse.
That’s how we roll
FINALLY!!!! someones doing something, and hes not even from crown heights. maybe if benshimon decided to do something else besides terrorize tsvatim, he’d be able to accomplish similar things
Just have kids wear a “george floyed tshirt” and they’ll be allowed to play there.
Nice video of 2 policemen confronting him elsewhere. He wasn’t so loud or brave. More like a school kid, meek and hiding behind some lawyer/politician.
If you’re going to engage in Civil Disobedience, you have to be willing to pay the price.
This is a terrible chillul Hashem and terrible chinuch. How sad these are our local leaders.
Truly we’re living in der golus.
Maybe because we don’t scream or be violent to police officers, unlike many other people in New York City.
and quite frankly nobody cares how he acted later, The main point is he actually did something and not cowered as thousands are crowded- not socially distance protesting a leftist narrative elsewhere in the city, this double standard has passed the line, and BTW the people who are going to hate us for it… well they hate us anyways, And for the 49% of people who care about freedom and morality they are very impressed and support this.
Welcome to 2020! We have learned that in NYC the only way to get things done is with civil disobedience….and as we have seen over the past few weeks there is no price to pay..or is there?depending on color or race?
What a typical sheepeople response. Yes time to stand up to this tyrant Mayor. Civil disobedience and yes spend an hour in police custody they can’t make you pay bail anyway so you’ll be out pretty quick.
for Jews to stop cooperating with this abuse and start standing up for ourselves. Besides the double standard of prohibiting Jewish kids from going to parks there are larger issues. Among other things they don’t allow our children to go yeshivas, that’s a crime of biblical proportions and we cannot allow it. We must take a stand.
If we never gonna do anything we will have another holocaust
We can’t protest we can’t speak up
This is not good.
Go learn about chill hashem
It’s a Chilul hashem when people like you allow and support anti semitism. The only thing that tolerance of anti semitism has done throughout our history is cause a loss of Jewish life. People like you keep on speaking about history and supposed morals but know nothing of it. It’s time we call out politicians for who they are and not for how much money they promise us.
At least he tried! Why is the community not demanding?! Where are the rabbis and the doctors when you need them and it’s not enforcing what the politicians want? Kids need playgrounds – the Rambam writes it’s a mitzvah to guard your health – that includes fresh air and physical activity for children.
But Rabbis and Doctors? They are there for us when we need them – for Halachic guidance and medical consultation. Not sure why you are implying they should somehow be fixing this situation…
we are living in golus because of liberals like you that support idiots like diblasio
Go on Twitter and see the support it’s unbelievable on Ted cruzes twitter theres thousands of supportive comments
And it’s time we stand up to to de Blasio,the governor who is himself a Democrat is upset with de Blasio, and the whole country is laughing at this clown of a mayor there’s no much of a chilul hashem to be made
This is NOT a chilul Hashem, this IS standing up for what is right !!! So, the protest and the March with THOUSAND of people ALL together, that YES, BUT a few kids PLAYING in the playground, that NO ????
Its a chilul Hashem to stand by and do nothing. This is the opposite
This is exactly how Hitler yemach shemo starting….. Little by little
#neveragain
did you seriously say “chilul hashem”, are you kidding, you are very not smart
You obviously don’t live in an apartment and have young kids.
If the macabees didn’t do anything and if there wasn’t any civil disobedience, Chanukah would never exist.
Two vastly different cases but in both Jews were specifically targeted and discriminated against.
We’ve been hearing the same rhetoric time and time again from DeBlasio and I think we gave him enough “chances”.
If we sit back and don’t let our voices be heard, nothing will be done do actually fix the problem.
go heshy
I don’t have children, but to watch it from the side is also disturbing. It is unbelievable the hypocrisy of this mayor. Without blinking or trying to hide it, the mayor is discriminating on a basis of color or religion.
Most of us are busy enough to not have the time and energy to go out to protest and let him and the world know what we are thinking and what we are feeling.
So thank you mr. Hershey for being our voice, and hopefully you will make more people to be aware of the unacceptable situation.
I understand the sentiment. The hurt and the anger is justified. But breaking a lock and trespassing is still wrong
It is actually not wrong when there is open parks a few blocks away
He just cut a lock. Not violent
He didn’t even cut it, he just unscrewed it
But the mayor will allow illegal dangerous fireworks all night. Police aren’t even bothering to stop it. Why is that ok? How is that allowed by the mayor?!
If you really want to do it correctly, can you have someone at the entrance with a good supply of hand sanitizer, and encourage all the moms and kids to use it before and after
– without governance, bad things happen. The issue isn’t that the parks are locked, it’s the double standard that people can protest while parks are locked. And the answer by ALSO breaking the law is counterproductive in the big picture. use the system to change the system. Get the laws changed legally. Change the leader, legally. breaking the law breeds more law breaking and the slippery slope to anarchy.
Our constitutional rights are being threatened NOW. We cannot wait for his term to end. There is no reason to allow ourselves to be subjected to this executive overreach in the meantime. Civil disobedience has historically been an effective and peaceful way to reclaim justice in this country.
Enough of us being pushed here and there. Finally, we are taking action against De Ignoramuslasio. Keep on doing it!
BLASIO
JEWISH LIVES MATTER
If the Jewish people would riot in the streets and block traffic like this Antifa people are doing You watch how fast it will get shut down and how many people will get arrested we are sheep easy targets
If NYC Public Advocate Jamani WIlliams can break the law by marching on traffic lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge, why can’t a Jew also break the law as he sees fit? Because the Jew has morality and respects secular and religious law and executive decisions of elected officials. Not allowing kids to spread Covoid-19 and kill their grandparents is not the same as ignoring Jews from being killed in a Holocaust. ( Kiddish Hashem and Chilul Hashem) – A greater analysis with Rabbinic law in detail would be helpful
HESHY , MAY HASHEM BLESS YOU BIG TIME!!
Even if we all agree that locked playgrounds is wrong, this is not the way to deal with the problem. Today you’re teaching children to brazenly ignore the city’s law, tomorrow they may ignore their parents’ rules, their teachers’ rules, and ultimately Hashem’s rules (Chas V’sholom).
Basic Chinuch.
Those who say broke law or chilul Hashem are those who raise hands to nazis and Give back land to Arabs or to be thrown to see to prevent chilul Hashem right ?!?! Jews can forcefully protect themselves enough hiding under carpet like mice
Who even says that that’s the law maybe the law it to lock this mayor in jail for maybe luckily till next Friday and no mayor will ever have right to lock up kids freedom to play adults can destroy the world 10;000 together parading but innocent pure children can’t live ?!?! Who decided law on our property maybe he can lock your home and you won’t go out because you’ll make a chilul Hashem!!!?????!!!?!
I do not the situation well at all, but I have read that the Schneerson family had been very careful to abide by local ordinances. See the incredible story of the temporary closure of Tomchei Temimim in the city of Lubavitch when there was concern by Rebbetsin Shterna Sara regarding trying to illegally re-open the yeshiva.
You see that the Frierdiker Rebbe has the bochurim sneak in through the window.
HATZLOCHO RABO!!!
With all the comments I have not seen one mention of the Rebbe. As “Chassidim” shouldn’t the first thing we should be asking ourselves is “What would the Rebbe say about breaking public property as an expression of our political disagreements? It’s either b/c we don’t understand what a Rebbe is, or we just want to ignore his true authority, and follow our yetzer. Either way something is sorely lacking here.
the rochester park was not closed the whole time ( i guess?)
This is what Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D, said
about the sit-ins:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sit-in#:~:text=Sit%2Dins%20were%20an%20integral,that%20struck%20down%20many%20racially
“They broke the immoral law”
If all the parks were closed, then it wasnt the right thing to bust the lock, but it was basically in our neighborhoods. meaning our children had no place to go outside. we didnt vandalize and disturb the peace at night. the kids needed this and the park was open to all children!