NEW YORK (Yaakov M / VINnews) — In an eye-popping display of the insane derangement of antisemites who detest Jews for no reason other than our lineage, a commenter on a NY Times article became enraged over an eruv wire which is practically invisible.
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Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District, outspoken Jewish advocate and NYT critic, mockingly posted the comment on Twitter.
The commenter’s hate-filled tirade, which would almost read like satire if it were not so viciously serious, was in response to an article discussing the Jewish concept of an eruv, specifically in context of the recent expansions of an eruv in Brooklyn.
The Times’ article attempted to explain the deeper “lomdus” behind the decree of eruv, which, oversimplified, is designed to unify many domains into one large domain. Bizarrely, the commenter seemed to take issue with the concept that he is sharing his domain with Orthodox Jews, which is, although very real and accurate, completely intangible and has zero practical impact on his life.
"I'm being forced to acquiesce"…to a nearly invisible string that is hung so high on a light pole that you probably wouldn't be able to see it if you tried looking for it.
Thanks to their ongoing attacks, these are the comments that flow from stories published in the NY Times. pic.twitter.com/8iJVbGuvcn
— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) February 17, 2023
The commenter wrote: “So secular people who do not believe they need to walk under a fishing line to conduct their business, must now share their space with people who want to consider their neighbors’ space as part of their own domain?”
He continued, “What if I don’t want to…Why am I being forced to acquiesce to accommodate a loophole to a ridiculous rule that I don’t follow?
The commenter concluded: “And people wonder why the larger community does not welcome an influx of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews.”
In response, Mr. Petlin wrote: “I’m being forced to acquiesce”…to a nearly invisible string that is hung so high on a light pole that you probably wouldn’t be able to see it if you tried looking for it.Thanks to their ongoing attacks, these are the comments that flow from stories published in the NY Times.”
Sadly, as absurd as the antisemite’s argument is, it’s not an isolated opinion, but shared by hundreds of thousands of people. It is well known that growing orthodox communities face intense backlash when trying to build or extend an eruv, due to antisemites who create laws to prevent them.
It would not be surprising if that was indeed the intention of the NY Times when publishing this story in the first place, specifically intending to fuel hatred and stoke the coals of antisemitism.
With that said, the commenters’ ludicrous claim that he is being “forced to acquiesce” to a tiny string which he would never know existed if he did not read it in the newspaper, and his fake outrage over an academic concept by which we are sharing space with each other, brings the hatred to a new level of absurdity.
I think the real issue here is that the eruv truly does change the character of a community. A non Jew or a secular Jew living in one of these neighborhood will suddenly see the entire neighborhood filled with people who live very different lives than they do. They cannot relate to Haredi people because they cannot interact on a deep level. They cannot share food, activities, music etc. They cannot have social events with them due to restrictions. The life is different and if you cannot see that you are blind. This is not about a string. Its not about antisemitism. Its about fear of a neighborhood completely transforming and ending up excluding residents who are currently living there.
If these comments were anti-black or anti-gay, would the NY Times have published them? I don’t think so. So why publish the anti-Semitic comments?
Because the NY Times has no problem with anti-Semitism!
It is not the Erev that keeps them up at night, them it is when we come into a community we make the community into out liking. Look at Monsey, where one house stood now we now have multi-family apartments. See the signs, with a number above concocted arrow, to show you how to make your way to the apartment you want you intend to go – Go to the back of the house – then left – and little up do a slight right and knock on the door to the your left.
Then we wonder why they don’t want us in their neighborhood. ? Did any of us ask those living there a generation or two if they want this?!
The worst ones are the democratic party JINO scum who hate religious Jews worse than the non Jews.
Petlin works for kiryas yoel a community who voted 90% for hochul for bucks progressives voted for hochul as well so they’re all on the same page
Some people have too much time on their hands.
I never acquiesced to bike lanes and “open streets” and those are far more invasive to my life in NYC. I never acquiesced to Halal street vendors. I never acquiesced to scaffolding over every building in NYC. I never acquiesced to church bells ringing every Sunday morning. I never acquiesced to speed cameras ticketing me for going a rational speed on an open road. There is so much we do not acquiesce to in a city this big. I say get over it now and move on!
Rav Moshe Feinstein Zatzal prohibited an Eruv in Brooklyn.
Was actually a nice article by NY Times, unfortunately the comments weren’t so nice.
The article in the NYTimes was respectful and explanatory.
Perhaps we now have NYTimes Derangement Syndrome. Bad is Bad and Good is also Bad.
Make no mistake, the purpose of the NYT publishing a seemingly harmless article on our ritualistic practice is mainly about it reaching into the public domain, and is because they know our practice of eruv and especially it’s “invasion” of the public square will not be taken harmlessly. Eruv may be usual to us, but to others unfamiliar tt is highly peculiar and invasive and indicative of our power over the public square and those who run it. And that in a climate of antisemitism among it’s readers this strangeness to the outsider they are reporting it to will only serve to shore up their hate with cause for mockery of our practices and hate for our self-serving influence in the public sphere and invasion of the public arena, and our establishing it “as ours” (which is a false made up reasoning, that only makes us appear as though we see/treat the public thoroughfare as our personal property..).
This in response to the billboard, instead of just leaving the topic of us alone, they spin this web.
Know it for what it is. Don’t be fooled.
Can someone please copy and paste the initial NYT article “For Observant Jews in Brooklyn, the Sabbath Expands”?
NYT
Murray Hill Church’s Neighbors Would Prefer to Look at the Clock
https://nyti.ms/18YF2Ul
“We have the legal right to ring church bells, and he’s the pastor and he’s doing that,” he said. “There’s no set rule in our diocese about when to ring the bells — they have a right to do it.”
Still, he added, referring to Father Robbins, “I’m sorry he has not been in better contact with the people.”
Monsignor Weber said the bells served as “a reminder to people of God’s presence” and that the likely origin of tolling them dated to a more agrarian era when they were rung to “bring people from the fields to pray.”
He is right – he should not share his space with anyone else, so he should get up & move to a desert with no one else around him.
A goy is even makpid on Sheva pruta so it was wrong of NYT to bring this topic to the public knowledge.