'Heshy' Tischler Charged With Inciting Riot At Lockdown Protests

BOROUGH PARK, BROOKLYN — Controversial activist Harold "Heshy" Tischler has been arrested in connection with an assault on a reporter during protests against new coronavirus restrictions in Brooklyn, police said Sunday.

Tischler, who has been at the head of the demonstrations in Borough Park, will be charged with inciting to riot and unlawful imprisonment in connection with the Oct. 7 assault on Jewish Insider reporter Jacob Kornbluh.

Kornbluh has said he was beaten up by a mob of protesters at the urging of the local activist.

"...I was just looking at my phone observing the scene when Heshy Tischler recognized me, and directed a crowd to come towards me," Kornbluh told the Daily Beast.

"Literally hundreds of members of the community tried to beat me up," he said. "Somebody hit me in the head. I was kicked, dragged, and people were saying I deserved to die... calling me Hitler [and a] Nazi."

The attack came during a second night of protests in Borough Park, where crowds of Orthodox Jewish community members have set fire to surgical masks, swarmed other journalists and beat up perceived enemies of their cause.

The protests first broke out with the news that the city and state would be imposing lockdowns on Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods facing surges in coronavirus cases.

Demonstrators reacting to Tischler's arrest again gathered Sunday outside of Kornbluh's home in Brooklyn, according to the New York Post.

Tischler, who said he will plead not guilty to the charges, had said Friday that he planned to turn himself into police on Monday. He has claimed Kornbluh "harassed" him the night before the assault.