Anti-vaccine protesters on Sunday displayed swastikas and yellow stars of David outside the Bronx office of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz who represents District 81 in the New York State Assembly. His district comprises Kingsbridge, Marble Hill, Norwood, Riverdale, Van Cortlandt Village, Wakefield, and Woodlawn Heights. Dinowitz, 67, has served in the Assembly since 1994.
Early on Saturday night, Assemblyman Dinowitz tweeted: “It has come to my attention that there may be an anti-vax event outside of my district office tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon. Please avoid the area if you are concerned about the potential for airborne transmission of COVID-19 or other preventable diseases.”
The next day, the assemblyman tweeted this shocked message: “The display of swastikas and yellow Stars of David outside my office today is repugnant and offensive. People are perfectly free to express their opinion on vaccines or any issue, but to openly display Nazi symbols outside the office of a Jewish legislator is despicable.”
The display of swastikas and yellow Stars of David outside my office today is repugnant and offensive.
People are perfectly free to express their opinion on vaccines or any issue, but to openly display Nazi symbols outside the office of a Jewish legislator is despicable. https://t.co/2a1YVPTbEY pic.twitter.com/NEjFna12Hn
— Jeffrey Dinowitz (@JeffreyDinowitz)
The protesters with the warped notion of historic symbols rallied against Dinowitz’s bill that would require all New York students to be vaccinated in order to attend school. The bill was introduced in October, is set to become effective 30 days after federal approval for vaccinating children 5-11, which would require the state Health Department to develop a vaccination program. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate in August by Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan). The vote will presumably take place in January when the state legislature is back in session.
“I would hope that the number one concern that people would have is protecting the lives of children,” Dinowitz said about his legislation. “I don’t know that there have been many instances of negative reactions, but what we do know for a fact is that we are closing in three-quarters of a million dead Americans from COVID.”
The rally was organized and featured Republican Rob Astorino, politician, radio producer, and television host who was the county executive of Westchester County, New York, from 2010 to 2017. He was defeated by incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2014. In 2017, Astorino ran for a third term as Westchester County Executive but was defeated by Democratic challenger George Latimer. In 2020, he ran unsuccessfully for the New York State Senate. Now he is running for governor of New York in the 2022 election.
Astorino described Sunday’s rally on his Facebook page: “We had over 100 parents outside the office of Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz today. He’s the sponsor of the bill that would require children get the Covid vaccine to be able to attend school. He said we’re ‘anti-vax.’ I’m anti-mandate. And we base it on the science and the data. I’m fighting for parental choice and we’re just getting started.”
Needless to say, the nice lady with the swastika and the sweet gentleman with the yellow star of David were clipped from his image of the event (You can see just the start of the headline Nuremberg Code on the right, and the guy with the yellow star is gone completely).