A fine of $ 15,000 (about 12,500 euros) seems little to sanction the attack against public health that turned out to be, on November 8, the celebration of a wedding in a Williamsburg synagogue, in Brooklyn (New York). When the rest of the temples, without distinction of faith, have their capacity limited to 50% to stop the transmission of the coronavirus, the betrothal of Yoel Teitelbaum, the grandson of an important rabbi of the Satmar Hasidic sect, brought together several thousand people -the capacity of the enclosure is 7,000-, summoned word of mouth to evade the surveillance of the authorities, and that they danced and sang for hours, without masks or safety distance, when the city borders the second wave of the pandemic. The video of the celebration, released this weekend and which ran like foam on social networks, shows thousands of men dressed in black, with frock coats and colorful fur hats, and a white spot on the stage, motionless, the bride, who is only known to be called Miriam. The guests attended the show in seclusion in the chicken coop.
In addition to the economic sanction, the New York authorities have also ordered the precautionary cessation of activities of the synagogue, in the epicenter of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in New York, with the threat of permanent closure “if inappropriate things continue to happen,” he said. this Tuesday the mayor, Bill de Blasio. As the newspaper recounted in Yiddish afterwards The sheet, organ of the Samar sect – to which the Chief Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, the groom’s grandfather belongs -, the preparations were almost a state secret to hide the summons “from the voracious press and government officials [local]”, According to the translation of the newspaper New York Post. “Due to the current situation of restrictions by the Government, the preparations were made secretly and discreetly, so as not to attract the attention of strangers, without posters in the synagogue or sending invitations by email, not even a society note in a publication like this one ”, adds the Jewish media, contrite for having had to bite the tongue so as not to put anyone on notice.
In October, local authorities ordered the cancellation of another large ultra-Orthodox wedding in Williamsburg, that of a grandson of Chief Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, then Yoel Teitelbaum’s brother and rival, after announcing with great fanfare that he expected to gather 10,000 guests. Rabbi Zalman, also leader of the Satmar sect –the one portrayed in the television series Unorthodox– He considered the suspension of the wedding “an unjustified attack” on his community, hence his brother and enemy decided to impose maximum secrecy around the call to prevent the authorities from frustrating the party.
The ultra-Orthodox community of New York is in the sights of the authorities after being associated with several outbreaks of the disease. After a break of several weeks in July, due to the liturgical calendar, the resumption of the wedding season with mass ceremonies and no capacity limitation led to a spike of outbreaks in September and October, forcing authorities to increase restrictions in several districts of the city, declared red zones. The ultra-Orthodox, who denounce an anti-Semitic bias in the measures, have publicly advocated disregarding all health recommendations, including the simple use of masks. It is not surprising, therefore, that the person in charge of the sanctioned synagogue, who had repeatedly recommended to his faithful to ignore the security measures, died last month a victim of covid-19.
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