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This “mazel cough” will be expensive!
City Hall will fine the Brooklyn Synagogue for $ 15,000 for breaking social distancing rules by hosting thousands in a clandestine wedding for the grandson of a senior religious leader in the Hasidic community, a Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday night.
Hizzoner announced the fine and summons the day after The Post revealed how thousands of people gathered at Yetev Lev Temple in South Williamsburg on November 8 – dancing and singing at the top of their lungs with no masks in sight as ‘they celebrate the wedding of Yoel Teitelbaum, the grandson of Satmar Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum.
“It’s just not acceptable, I mean we’ve been through so much,” de Blasio told New York’s 1 Errol Louis during his regular appearance Monday at ‘Inside City Hall’. “It was incredibly irresponsible, just plain unacceptable.”
De Blasio said that while it is unclear how many people occupied the 7,000-capacity Satmar schul in south Williamsburg, it was evident that the social distancing and mask-wearing measures ordered by officials city and state were clearly broken.
The Post obtained videos from the crowd and revealed that important steps taken by organizers to prevent word of the wedding leaking from City Hall after officials held a similar celebration for a cult’s grandson. Satmar competing, fearing the mass indoor rally could fuel a new coronavirus outbreak.
“There seems to be a real effort to hide it, which is absolutely unacceptable,” de Blasio told Louis. “There will be a summons of $ 15,000 immediately for this site and there may be additional consequences very soon.”
Despite the terrible toll of COVID-19 in ultra-Orthodox communities, officials have struggled to convince residents and local businesses to obey mask rules and social distancing regulations.
In turn, several of those neighborhoods were at the center of the city’s first major coronavirus outbreak this fall, leading Gov. Andrew Cuomo to impose “ red zone ” shutdown rules on part of the area to try to contain the spread. This sparked raucous protests that turned violent, including attacks on journalists.
In horrific irony, Yetev Lev’s own chairman R’Mayer Zelig Rispler, who has openly urged the Brooklyn Orthodox community to adhere to coronavirus safety measures, died of COVID-19 last month at age 70.
Additional reporting by Susan Edelman
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