Tuesday, November 24, 2020
City Fines Synagogue $15,000 For Massive Williamsburg Wedding
The Satmar synagogue that hosted an enormous wedding flouting COVID-19 restrictions was fined $15,000 and issued a cease-and-desist order, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The wedding reportedly drew thousands of people for the grandson of a leader in the Hasidic Satmar sect, Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum, on November 8th. The New York Post reported over the weekend the wedding was planned in secret, by word of mouth, to avoid attracting the attention of the press and government officials. Some 7,000 people reportedly attended, though de Blasio has said the exact number of how many people were at the gathering wasn't known.
"Unquestionably, it was too many people," de Blasio told reporters Tuesday morning. "It appears that there was a very conscious effort to conceal what was going on, and that's what makes it even more unacceptable."
On NY1's "Inside City Hall" Monday evening, de Blasio called the event "amazingly irresponsible" while announcing the $15,000 summons issued to the synagogue's leaders. Additional consequences could come soon, though it was not clear what those consequences would entail.
When asked how effective a $15,000 fine would be, the mayor said the fine is hefty enough to draw attention, but the cease-and-desist order sent by the NYC Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi would also help.
"From this point on if there's any further illegal activity in that building, the building will be closed down. I think that's a pretty clear deterrent," de Blasio told reporters.
According to Politico, Chokshi called the wedding "an act that is dangerous to human life or detrimental to health" in the cease-and-desist order.
The Yetev Lev D'Satmar synagogue on Hooper Street is located next to an FDNY firehouse—among the agencies tasked with coronavirus restrictions enforcement, the Post noted.
The mayor said a "full answer" on whether people in the firehouse knew about the gathering wasn't known, and indicated the city wasn't aware of the wedding until after it had already occurred. An FDNY spokesperson said no complaint was filed to the department, no unusual amounts of pedestrian or vehicle traffic were observed on the block, and firefighters did not see any possible overcrowding.
A phone call to a number listed for the synagogue was not returned.
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