Orthodox Jew arrested for violence during anti-confinement protest in New York

New York | A conservative radio host has been arrested in connection with violence against a journalist during an anti-confinement protest among Orthodox Jewish community in New York, police said.

Harold “Heshy” Tischler, a city council candidate and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, was taken into custody Sunday evening, New York police said in a statement.

He will be indicted in particular for “inciting a riot”, she added.

Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood, home to a large Orthodox Jewish community, was the scene of tense protests last week against new localized restrictions on places of worship and the closure of non-essential businesses to combat a second wave of the coronavirus.

The Democratic Governor of New York State said the measures were necessary, as the rate of COVID-19 positivity has risen sharply in recent weeks, often in favor of the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur .

Members of these Orthodox Jewish communities denounce discriminatory treatment, sometimes considering themselves to be the target of the Democratic governor, because of their majority support for the Republican president, in the run-up to the November 3 election.

Harold “Heshy” Tischler, an Orthodox Jew, is accused of encouraging angry protesters on Wednesday to attack a reporter, also an Orthodox Jew, who was covering a protest. The journalist, Jacob Kornbluh of the Jewish Insider website, claimed to have been hit on the head and kicked. He also said that demonstrators called him a “Nazi” and a “spy”.

The man who was arrested warned on Friday that he expected to be arrested and he assured in a video posted on Twitter that he would plead not guilty.