Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

Borough Park?s populist agitator may be arrested on Monday. His response: ?You just wait for round two.? Editor?s note: This story was produced in partnership with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
On a sunny afternoon in June, Heshy Tischler showed up at Williamsburg?s Middleton Playground with bolt cutters. The local playgrounds had been closed for months, and because the peak of the pandemic had passed ? although it was hardly over, and risk remained substantial ? the large families of Brooklyn?s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods were frustrated. Videos showing lively playgrounds in other neighborhoods were circulating in Orthodox WhatsApp chats, and the prospect of a summer without sleepaway camps loomed. Tischler had been at protests calling on the governor to open summer camps for weeks, going so far as calling it ?the Heshy Movement.? Now he was taking matters into his own hands. Cheers rose as the lock and chain fell away. ?Come on in, guys,? he said, in his trademark voice ? Jackie Gleason by way of Moe from The Simpsons ? as boys in yarmulkes and girls in long dresses milled around him. One man chanted: Hesh-y! Hesh-y! The next day, local elected officials ? State Senator Simcha Felder, State Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, City Councilman Kalman Yeger ? were standing by Tischler?s side, opening up playground after playground in defiance of the mayor?s orders intended to stop the spread of COVID-19. They even posed on a swing set, Tisc...