New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio helps distribute personal protective equipment and bags of food at Marcy Houses in the borough of Brooklyn, April 28, 2020. Photo: Anthony Behar / Sipa USA.

More than 100 Jewish leaders and organizations sent a letter to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday, harshly criticizing him for attacking the city’s Jewish community for allegedly violating coronavirus-related restrictions on public gatherings.

After a Hasidic rabbi’s funeral in Brooklyn on Tuesday saw apparent breaches of social-distancing rules, de Blasio issued an angry tweet, saying, “My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed.”

The tweet was met with outrage from Jewish and non-Jewish leaders and organizations, who blasted de Blasio for singling out the entire Jewish community and stoking hatred at a time when antisemitic conspiracy theories surrounding the coronavirus were rampant.

De Blasio declined to apologize, saying, “If you saw anger and frustration, you’re right.”

Wednesday’s letter states, “We are writing to express our anger and disappointment at your scapegoating the Jewish community in response to the funeral of Rabbi Chaim Mertz last night.”

Noting the real need for following all coronavirus regulations, the letter said of de Blasio’s statement, “This is not the way, and your threat of arrests and summonses is not the answer.”

“In the midst of an historic wave of antisemitic hate violence in New York City, our community — like the Asian community — has been feeling the pain of being singled out and blamed for the spread of this deadly disease,” the letter noted. “This singling out is especially potent because it aligns with longstanding antisemitic tropes that have, for millennia, blamed Jews for societal ills.”

“Laying blame upon Hasidic communities — among the most visible members of our Jewish family — will not stop the spread of COVID-19, and referring to these particular communities as ‘the Jewish community’ both flattens a diverse group of New Yorkers into a single bloc and fuels the antisemitic hatreds that bubble beneath the surface of our society,” the letter added.

The letter further notes that Jews and Jewish groups, including the Orthodox community, are working hard to fight the coronavirus in whatever way they can, and have “overwhelmingly led and acted responsibly in this moment of social distancing.”

“To suggest otherwise on the actions of a few is the deepest form of marginalization,” it said.

“We are hurt by your comments and request a meeting to discuss constructive approaches to respond to the pandemic that recognize the Jewish community’s earnest efforts to fight COVID-19, protect vulnerable communities, and avoid heavy-handed over-policing,” the letter concluded.

The signatories represent the broad spectrum of Jewish religious and political beliefs, including Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, A Wider Bridge, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a number of assembly members and state legislators, the Bend the Arc Jewish Action, a plethora of synagogues and rabbis, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism-New York.