More than 100 local clergy and Jewish leaders — along with Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), State Senators Brad Hoylman and Julia Salazar; Assemblymembers Harvey Epstein and Linda Rosenthal; and Councilmembers Brad Lander and Stephen Levin — sent a letter to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio expressing “anger and disappointment” at his “scapegoating” of the Jewish community in response to social distancing violations at a funeral in Brooklyn this week.

Details: The letter, spearheaded by the recently launched New York Jewish Agenda and co-authored by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, cautioned the mayor that “laying blame upon Hasidic communities — among the most visible members of our Jewish family — will not stop the spread of COVID-19.” The authors said that de Blasio’s comments directed at “the Jewish community,” only “flattens a diverse group of New Yorkers into a single bloc and fuels the anti-Semitic hatreds that bubble beneath the surface of our society.” 

‘Sorry if’: During a press briefing at City Hall Wednesday morning, de Blasio said he regretted “if the way” he expressed himself “gave people a feeling of being treated the wrong way.” The mayor stressed that his comments were “tough love” in a moment of “anger and frustration” after witnessing the violations firsthand. “So again, if in my passion and in my emotion, I said something that in any way was hurtful, I'm sorry about that.”

Read more here. 

Taking action: The World Jewish Congress is planning to formally censure de Blasio on the recommendation of WJC President Ron Lauder, who also heads the Anti-Semitism Accountability Project. “To blame the entire Jewish community is the type of stereotyping that is dangerous and unacceptable at any time, and particularly pernicious while the world is gripped in fear and the worst among us are looking for scapegoats,” Lauder said in a statement.

Think twice: Former U.S. Envoy on Antisemitism Ira Forman told JI that while de Blasio’s record doesn’t show he has animus towards Jews, “to single out the Jewish community was clearly a mistake, and he should have just admitted it.” 

Hot takes: Tablet’s Liel Leibovitz argues that de Blasio “is responsible for the thousands of deaths from COVID-19 he could’ve prevented” by not acting early and put the lives of the Jewish community at risk of violence by singling out Jews for breaking the law. Forward opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon posited that the generalization was “doubly offensive given the mayor’s failure to protect Orthodox Jews last year as they suffered daily physical attacks on the streets of New York City.” 

A suggestion for the Mayor: Rabbi Nochum Kurinsky of Chabad @ the Beaches in Jacksonville, Florida suggests de Blasio should single out the Jews who have been on the front lines fighting against the pandemic.