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In every crisis, opportunities are presented for introducing innovations. For voters in New York, the innovation arising from the coronavirus pandemic is an expanded criterion that would allow citizens to vote by mail. Through an executive order issued on April 9 by Governor Andrew Cuomo, the definition of a “temporary illness” includes “the potential for contraction of the COVID-19 virus.” This effectively makes everyone in the state eligible for an absentee ballot.

After months of sycophantic worship at the altar of Andrew Cuomo, it’s time to pull back the curtain and reveal New York’s Governor for what he is: the man responsible for his state’s awful response to the coronavirus pandemic.

I’m not a politician. I am not a government official. I’m not a rabbi. I have no sway on when the economy (or shuls) reopen. My one and only concern is the safety of my family, friends, and neighbors.

You should soon receive an application for an absentee ballot for the June 23 Primary in the mail.  But don’t wait.  You can apply for an absentee ballot online right now at nycabsentee.com/absentee.  You need to enter your name exactly as it appears on the voter registration roles to access the application.  On the application, mark temporary illness or disability as the reason for requesting the absentee ballot.  Even people who are concerned that they might expose themselves to COVID-19 by going to their usual polling place on Primary Day qualify for an absentee ballot under this category.

While physical attacks on Jews have taken a pandemic pause, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent blaming of “the Jewish community” for a lapse in social distancing shows the pause does not extend to verbal assaults. Indeed, viral assaults blaming “the Jews” for COVID-19 are spiking. The dark corners of social media are filled with lurid conspiracy theories that the virus is an international Jewish bioweapon engineered so Jews can profit from poisoning the human race with toxic “vaccines.” Not only that, media across the Muslim world—including in the U.S.—accuse Israel of having created the virus to subjugate and “neuter” the world’s population, and to kill Palestinians.

Since this quarantine began, my five-year-old daughter has been asking me questions about practically everything in the universe. Why don’t fish have eyelids? Why did the Pharaoh survive the Red Sea? How are babies born? How do people die? Why is G-d invisible? Why do the letters Kof and Kuf make the same “K” sound? Why is “e” silent in the word “make”? Are tooth fairies real?