New York’s battles with Orthodox Jews continued this week as authorities try to prevent synagogues from hosting large-scale events that they claim are illegal under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive orders.
On Monday, an hour after the left-wing Daily Beast published a story on a wedding that was scheduled to occur at a synagogue in Kiryas Joel, Orange County, the state health commissioner issued a cease-and-desist order for the event. A health department spokesperson told the Daily Beast that the order demanded the synagogue “cancel the wedding ceremonies unless they can be held in strict adherence with safe social distancing protocols.”
“In the event that the ceremonies are not canceled, the order requires that social-distancing and face-covering protocols be enforced,” the spokesperson continued. “With respect to the two receptions, it requires that they be limited to 50 people or canceled.”
As is their wont — the synagogue also heard from the county health department in September for holding services without social distancing or mask wearing — the Jews ignored the order and proceeded with the wedding.
The Daily Beast reported that “the scene outside” the synagogue “was a wild one come evening…. A steady flow of bearded, black-hatted people going in and out of the enormous synagogue were all unmasked. Large white tarps stretched from the overhang at the top of the stairs down to the floor, blocking passersby from seeing inside the venue.” A busybody carpentry contractor told the website that he’d given up haranguing the congregants, who were there for a “big wedding,” over their failure to wear masks.
It was the second major Hasidic wedding in the Empire State this month. On November 8, a Brooklyn synagogue that seats 7,000 hosted a packed, mask-free wedding ceremony, all without attracting the attention of any authorities — even the firefighters in the station next door.
After the New York Post published a story about that wedding, enraged officials exacted their revenge. Cuomo vowed to “bring the full consequences of legal action to bear” against the synagogue, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the synagogue would be fined $15,000 “immediately,” with “additional consequences” quite possibly to follow.
The men were particularly incensed that the wedding had been planned with such secrecy that they were unaware of it until well after the fact — a move made necessary by the state’s earlier shutting down of another Jewish wedding when it became public knowledge.
“There appeared to be a real effort to conceal it, which is absolutely unacceptable,” said de Blasio.
The Jews in Kiryas Joel did not keep Monday’s wedding a secret at all, but thanks to the incompetence of government, officials were still unaware of the event until just before it occurred — and too late to stop it. They probably wouldn’t have known about it at all if not for the Daily Beast.
Consequently, the Jews recognized the enemy when they saw him, wrote the website:
Outsiders are immediately physically identifiable in this community, and a trio of Hasidic teens began circling a reporter’s car in a parking lot across the street from the Kiryas Joel synagogue on Monday afternoon.
Moments later, a man identifying himself as the manager of the temple came out — sans face mask — and demanded to know why The Daily Beast was present.
He dialed his phone and walked away before getting an answer.
Two cars then pulled up and double-parked close by.
“No pictures! No videos!” one of the drivers yelled out.
“Are you a cop?” demanded the other.
“Please go somewhere else, we need the parking,” added the manager.
The Daily Beast reported that “it was not immediately clear” what else the state planned to do about the wedding. When the website inquired, the Orange County Health Department said enforcement was up to the state police, who in turn passed the buck to the state health department, which did not respond.
One thing, however, is certain: A people that has survived thousands of years of persecution isn’t going to buckle under these attacks. Cuomo has already gotten a taste of that, but he may get a bellyful if, as some of his state’s Jews are requesting, the Supreme Court overturns his restrictions on houses of worship.
