Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Ultra-Orthodox children hold ‘Kid lives matter’ protest over summer camp closures

Hundreds of Haredi children in Brooklyn gathered in the early evening on Thursday to ask New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and to open sleepaway camps and parks.

Videos and photos showed a crowd of children, mostly boys with sidecurls and kippot, walking and biking along Bedford Avenue, Taylor Street and Lee Avenue in the Williamsburg neighborhood. Some hold signs that say “Our education masters,” presumably meant to say “Our education matters.” Other signs say “No camps, no justice” and “Camps are essential.”

A WhatsApp message sent to the Forward asked demonstrators to bring along signs that say “Kid Lives Matter.”

Jewish organizations, mostly Orthodox, have been pressuring de Blasio and Cuomo to open sleepaway camps. Those camps, many of which serve the state’s substantial Jewish population, have been ordered to remain shut due to the present risk of coronavirus.

Simcha Eichenstein, an Orthodox Jewish state assemblyman representing Borough Park, is one of the individuals leading the charge to open sleepaway camps. A group of more than 50 camp directors have written letters to officials asking them to open as well.

Orthodox families often have six or more children, and with distance learning in effect for the last few months, Jewish families (like all families) are looking for a break. Multiple Hasidic yeshivas remained open despite the state and local laws that closed schools due to the coronavirus outbreak.

De Blasio has repeatedly defended his decisions to close city parks in the name of social distancing while simultaneously giving anti-racism protesters more leeway.

Another protest is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, according to social media posts.

Molly Boigon is an investigative reporter at the Forward. Contact her at boigon@forward.com or follow her on Twitter @MollyBoigon

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version