NY synagogue scraps wedding due to 'unwarranted' COVID violation claims
The synagogue supposedly took precautions to ensure the wedding would abide by regulations and not attract 10,000 attendees, but “nobody verified our plans before attacking us.”
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFOrthodox Jews of the Satmar Hasidim celebrate the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'Omer in the village of Kiryas Joel, New York(photo credit: MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS)
A synagogue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, criticized on Sunday what it described as "unwarranted attacks" that wound up forcing it to cancel a high-profile wedding for the grandchild of the Satmar grand rabbi over concerns it would attract around 10,000 attendees, The New York Post reported.Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, a Williamsburg synagogue serving the Satmar hassidic sect, was set to host the wedding of the grandchild of Satmar Grand Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitlebaum on Monday, but concerns were raised after it was estimated that as many as 10,000 guests could show up to the wedding from Brooklyn and Rockland County. As such, the synagogue was given an order from the state barring them from hosting the wedding.This is despite the synagogue's claims that it had taken preparations to ensure the wedding would abide by coronavius regulations, claiming that “nobody verified our plans before attacking us.”“The unwarranted attacks on this event, originated by those besmirching the community, are detached from the facts,” synagogue’s secretary Chaim Jacobowitz said in a statement, according to The New York Post.The wedding would only have included a “small circle of close family members” for the key sections, and “the rest of the community would only be able to participate for a short period of time,” the secretary explained.“The greeting cue would have been controlled in accordance with the social distancing regulations. The proper arrangements were in place to achieve that.”Though it is unclear if the order barred the wedding completely, it is known that the synagogue was given an ultimatum to postpone or cancel it should they not be able to limit it to just 50 people. However, Jacobowitz explained that the new publicity garnered by the incident has forced them to scrap their plans.“The publicity will turn this wedding to a paparazzi and will draw spectators that will make it impossible to control the crowds to comply with social distancing,” Jacobowitz said, according to The New York Post.“It will also deter from the celebratory and spiritual atmosphere fit for such an affair."“Hence, we decided that the wedding will not be held as planned, and will only [be] attended by close family members.”There is heightened concern over a potential spike in cases from mass gatherings in the ultra-Orthodox communities in New York, following a gathering last Sunday in the heavily hassidic town of New Square in Rockland County in which thousands of attendees did not adhere strictly to guidelines for social distancing and the wearing of masks, local CBS-affiliate WCBS reported Saturday night.The gathering could have been the cause of higher infection rates, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. Rockland County’s red zones, including New Square, have had more spikes in positive test results, he said.“Some of the complexity of the enforcement here, especially with members of the Orthodox community, [is that] they never comply with the rules,” Cuomo said.
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