Charedi reporter at centre of a storm

There are two men at the centre of the febrile Brooklyn street demonstrations by strictly Orthodox Jews, protesting against a coronavirus crackdown by the Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and his mayoral colleague, Bill de Blasio.

One is homegrown local Harold “Heshy” Tischler, host of a populist pro-Trump radio programme, now facing a court case on charges of inciting a riot and unlawful imprisonment.

And the other, improbably, is a softly-spoken Orthodox Jew, Jacob Kornbluh, born and brought up in Stamford Hill, London and now a political reporter for the Jewish Insider website, a national Jewish publication rather than a Charedi, local, one.

Since the beginning of the pandemic — and Kornbluh himself fell victim to the disease early on — he has been one of the loudest voices calling for the strictly Orthodox community to observe the rules of masks and social distancing. He has lost both relatives and friends to the virus.

But last week matters turned ugly when a crowd of mainly young men and boys — apparently urged on by Tischler — turned on Kornbluh and began screaming “moiser” — “traitor” — in his face. Kornbluh, 39, requested and received a police escort to his home in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Boro Park, where he lives with his wife and five children.

He and his family now have to deal with intimidation on the street and on social media, directed at Kornbluh for apparently “siding” with the mayor and the governor, and for pressing charges against Heshy Tischler. “As a reporter, I never want to be the story”, says Kornbluh, “I always want to be the one presenting the accurate facts, the government guidelines and so on. Unfortunately there’s so much misinformation and miscommunication”. He is as critical of the mayor and governor for “failure to reach out to the community and educate about the virus”, as he is of the community for flouting the regulations.

Public service is central to Kornbluh’s family. His father, Isaac, ran for local council in Stamford Hill and was one of the founders of the area’s Hatzolah and Shomrim groupings, forming tight bonds with police and hospital authorities. Jacob, the fifth of seven siblings, told a Haaretz webinar this week that his memories of home life included his father “being almost never there” on Shabbat or even seder night, because of being on call for emergencies. “My father was always pretty vocal about his core mission, to save lives”, Kornbluh told the JC, “that’s how I grew up, and that’s how I feel”.

After trying his hand at tweeting and blogging having moved to New York, Kornbluh embraced journalism full time, beginning as a reporter for Yeshiva World News.

He became a familiar sight, an identifiably Chasidic Jew in dress and manner but chasing down political stories that often had nothing to do with the community in which he lived. Many strictly Orthodox Jews, both in Stamford Hill and Brooklyn, have entered politics but strictly Orthodox journalists are rare.

He believes, he says, that part of the problem in Boro Park — where there are about 100 synagogues or shtibls in that neighbourhood alone — is that there has been a natural tendency for the strictly Orthodox community to support Donald Trump and thus, conversely, distrust the Democratic governor and mayor of New York. Kornbluh speaks of Trump’s “divisive rhetoric” and “the fact that he didn’t take the science seriously [about the virus]” at the start of the pandemic, as having an adverse effect on the way the community responded.

Paradoxically, the situation — just weeks before the US elections — has succeeded in uniting both the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Jewish Democratic Council of America. The two bodies issued a joint statement this week condemning the attacks on Kornbluh, saying: “We are unified in our outrage and deep concern about the violence and incitement directed at Jacob for his valuable reporting. We stand together with Jacob, condemn those threatening violence, and call for this upheaval and vilification of a respected journalist to come to an immediate end”.

It has been Kornbluh’s determination to continue drawing attention to the breaking of regulations which has triggered the verbal attacks by Heshy Tischler, and the allegations that Kornbluh was a “moiser” who would rather deal with the secular authorities by betraying his own community.

Despite everything, Kornbluh is “optimistic by nature” and believes his community has come to understand that violence is not an answer — “and does not bring down the infection rate”. He thinks things will be calmer now the chagim are over and is confident that practical compromise measures such as mass testing, outdoor services and closing of streets on Shabbat, will be offered by the mayor and the governor.

“I’m undeterred,” he says cheerfully. “I have never worked on the assumption that I would be given everything on a golden plate”.