I mean it is what it is as far as what it sounds like. It's just what happened. And as far as a protected class, that's what we did. We treated those folks just like we did everybody else, meaning they were subject to following the laws everybody else had to.
I'm not trying to trash Hasidic Jews in general. I think stuff like this happens more often wherever you have ultra orthodox sects of any religion interacting with people outside of their community.
I used to live in South Central PA and interacted with Amish people regularly where I worked. Generally nice people, but man do they treat their animals like shit. Mainly just through neglect because religiously speaking they view them like tools. Now that view while pretty terrible (in my opinion) didn't directly break any laws. What did were all of the unlicensed, Amish run puppy mills that the area was notorious for. Their particular religious view of animals came into conflict with the law in that case.
I don't know the tenets of Hasidic Judaism well enough to know if that for sure was what was going on in my case. But I suspect there is something about taking orders about how to behave from outsiders is frowned upon, and resulted in more negative interactions with them.