Stereotyping all Hasidic drivers for the alleged actions of
one is hateful and despicable; UJO calls for thorough accounting of the
incident, and for any witnesses or anyone who may have footage of the incident
to come forward; Data shows that Hasidic Williamsburg area is safer for bikers
than surrounding areas
Accusations of several attempts to hurt her calls into
question Tamblyn’s credibility. The NY Times ought to investigate if she meets
their credibility standards
After
tweeting yesterday about an alleged incident in which “a Hasidic man in grey
van try to hit a woman and her
baby in a stroller as she crossed a crosswalk, honking and touching the
stroller with the car’s bumper,” Amber Tamblyn followed with a shocking, hateful attack on all Hasidic men. “[T]his is not the first time a man from the
Hasidic community in NYC has attempted to harm me or other women I know. Any
woman riding a bike through South Williamsburg can attest.”
The
UJO condemns in the strongest terms this biased, anti-Semitic attack on the
Hasidic community, and calls on The New York Times to stop
publishing commentary from her and other known anti-Semites.
“This
would have been unacceptable against any other group. Unfortunately, too often
people feel that such claims can be made against Hasidim and that when
attacking the Hasidic religious community anything
goes -- from discriminating in housing against large Jewish families to
attacking our religious educational system” said Rabbi David Niederman,
President of the UJO of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn.
“This incident has to be
thoroughly investigated as an individual case. We call on Ms. Tamblyn to
describe the entire incident and we ask the NYPD to thoroughly investigate what
transpired at this busy intersection. We further ask for anyone who witnessed
the incident to come forward with information, and/or any CCTV or dash-camera
footage that they have from the area.”
The alleged incident took place Sunday, March 4th,
about 2:30PM, with a grey van, on Vanderbilt near the Atlantic Avenue
intersection, touching a stroller pushed by a woman, and honking and yelling. We sympathize with anyone who
experienced such an incident however, Ms. Tamblyn draws an unfair and biased analogy.
The
UJO calls on the Ms. Tamblyn to either back up her claim about several
incidents in which Hasidic men tried to attack her or other female bikers or to
apologize for making such a claim. It’s unacceptable to generalize against all
Hasidim, and the data shows that while there sadly were several fatalities of
bicyclists in the neighboring areas, South Williamsburg didn’t have any biker
fatalities at least since 2009, nor is there a higher rate of biker injuries
here. To accuse Hasidic men of attempting to attack women is despicable and
shameful. (For
cyclist injuries and fatalities data complied by the City of New York please
visit NYC Vision Zero http://www.nycvzv.info/#)
“Ms. Tamblyn ought to back up her claims against
individuals, so that it can be thoroughly investigated. Blanket attacks against
any group as a whole is a modern blood libel,” said Rabbi David Niederman. “As
long she doesn’t back up her claims, one can’t take her seriously. It would be
very odd for the NY Times to continue publishing her articles, with her
credibility and judgment in question. Even if there were incidents, attacking
an entire class of people based on an individual accusation is discriminatory
and dead wrong.”
