Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Another large-scale Hasidic wedding held in NY despite cease-and-desist
Another large-scale Hasidic wedding was held in New York Monday night — flouting a cease-and-desist order from the state banning gatherings of more than 50 people, The Post has confirmed.
State police are now investigating the ceremony between two members of prominent Satmar families at Congregation Yetev Lev in Kiryas Joel, according to Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus.
"It went on 'til late, law enforcement was there," Neuhaus told The Post.
The nuptials were held despite a warning letter sent Sunday by state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who wrote that he was aware "separate large wedding ceremonies" were planned for Monday, with "hundreds if not thousands" expected to attend.
"I find that the Congregation's wedding ceremonies and pre-ceremony receptions scheduled for November 23, 2020 will create an undue risk for an increase of the spread of COVID-19, and present a danger to the health and safety of the People of the State of New York," Zucker wrote in the letter obtained by The Post.
The Health Department told the Times Herald-Record that the wedding, and separate receptions planned nearby, were capped at 50 people, or else they'd have to be canceled.
But photos from outside the temple Monday night, published by the Daily Mail, show dozens of guests milling about without masks. White tarps blocked the view into inside the venue. It's unclear how many guests were in attendance.
Earlier in the day, a contractor told the Daily Beast that a "big wedding" was to be held that evening and that no one inside was wearing a mask. The contractor said he was tired of asking guests to put one on.
Journalists at the scene were harassed by a group of guests who surrounded their vehicles and even spat at a Mail photographer's car, according to the outlet.
The defiant wedding in Kiryas Joel — an insular community belonging to the ultra-Orthodox Satmar sect — comes on the heels of another decidedly non-coronavirus-compliant wedding in Williamsburg Nov. 8. that was organized in secret.
Videos from that gathering showed thousands of maskless revelers standing shoulder-to-shoulder and stomping, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs inside the temple, which has a maximum capacity of 7,000.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo ripped the shindig for taking place in "blatant disregard of the law," and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $15,00 fine against the synagogue.
Kiryas Joel, also referred to as the Town of Palm Tree, recently recorded the highest COVID-19 positivity rate in the state at 34 percent, the New York Times reported. That number fell to just 2 percent last month — but it may have been skewed with the community refusing to be tested.
Congregation Yetev Lev didn't immediately return a message.
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