A Brooklyn synagogue that was stopped by the state before it could host a massive wedding in October finally succeeded on Monday in pulling off another potential super-spreader event — a jam-packed funeral.
The Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar went coronavirus rogue for the funeral of 94-year-old former chief Satmar judge Rabbi Yisroel Chaim Menashe Friedman — with up to an estimated 5,000 people cramming the house of worship at 152 Rodney St. in Williamsburg.
Bodies were pressed in on all sides and spilled out onto the sidewalk as just a fraction of the Hasidic crowd was seen wearing masks.
Five NYPD officers were seen standing nearby outside the house of worship — where a crowd of men and boys failed to socially distance, many also maskless or with their masks down around their necks.
“Normally, we would avoid having such a crowd unless it was for something very, very important. This was one of those times,’’ said an attendee whose first name is Lipa.
“This man was a giant,’’ he said of Friedman. “He was there from the beginning, when the community was rebuilding after the war. A very, very holy man. For someone like him, you couldn’t keep people from coming even if you wanted to.”
Another man at the service claimed that the community is immune to COVID-19 at this point — because virtually all of its members have already contracted it.
“Ask anybody here if they had COVID. They’ll say yes — and they won’t be lying,’’ the man said. “People from the outside, they don’t understand that. We’ve all had it.”
According to the CDC, even if a person has been infected and recovers from the virus, he or she may still be in danger of getting it again.
An organizer did announce in Yiddish just before the service that there were face masks available at the door, but hardly anyone donned masks inside.
Meanwhile, hours before the 12:30 p.m. funeral began, the synagogue held an event Sunday night — where maskless men packed around a dais as --- Grand Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum told them, “We are not Americans.”
The rabbi was commemorating the annual anniversary of legendary Satmar leader Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum’s escape from the Nazis on Dec. 7, 1944, during the Holocaust.
“We need to understand that we are in exile. We live here, but we are not Americans,” the younger Teitelbaum said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Teitelbaum also oversaw the funeral for Friedman.
The synagogue is the same place where Teitelbaum’s grandchild was set to be wed in a ceremony with 10,000 attendees in October — before Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office caught wind of the gathering and slapped a state order barring it from occurring.
New York currently allows “no more than 33% of the maximum occupancy for a particular area for [religious] services occurring indoors,’’ according to the state’s Web site. People who are not members of the same household must remain 6 feet apart.
A certificate of occupancy for the synagogue from the city Department of Buildings says it can hold 1,600 people max.
In November, Teitelbaum’s rabbi brother, Aaron, pulled off a secret wedding with thousands of attendees a few blocks from his sibling’s temple in Williamsburg.
At the time, Mayor Bill de Blasio called the event “amazingly irresponsible’’ and levied $15,000 in fines against the synagogue.
7 comments:
Dayan Friedman zl was in YTV in the 1940s I presume as Rabbeinee Yoel plucked him from Beis Medrash Elyon
RSFM ztl...sent him to Satmar.
I never heard anything about this from old Benji Feldman.
Did Dayan Friedman get along with Margo?
Sol:-) --- one of the two became an extremely well regarded posek, maybe even at genius level, and one became a bus driver, could not even get a kindergarten rebbe job --- Perhaps ask Shea Fishman which one was what.
Benji Feldman was long dead ...his son Itzik sold him the shmatte business.
Ha! I was TOO OLD even before YTT started that I should remember anything now.
Gotta run! Feeling a za bone chilling frrrost coming down to Willy with a cold front from Canada!
Yessss! Avi BullSchick, shpring, tantz the Horah with me!
COVID deaths in the US have soared to 2,200+ a day on average, matching the frightening peak last Apr & daily cases eclipse 200,000 on average for the 1st time on record, with the crisis certain to get worse from fallout of Thanksgiving, Xmas & New Year’s.
Virtually every state reports surges.
“What we do now's literally life or death for citizens,” Washington Gov Jay Inslee said today as he extended restrictions on business & social gatherings, including a ban on indoor dining-drinks at restaurants-bars.
Elsewhere, North Carolina’s Gov imposed a curfew & authorities in California sent a mass text today warning millions of rapid virus spread & urging they abide by the stay-at-home order.
The virus is blamed for 286,000+ deaths & 15 million infections in the US.
Many Americans disregarded warnings not to travel over Thanksgiving & ignore other precautions, out of stubbornness, ignorance or complacency. On Sat night, police in California arrested 160 people not wearing masks, at a party in Palmdale held without homeowner knowledge.
White House virus task force coordinator Dr Deborah Birx, offered a subtle rebuke how President Trump & others in the administration downplay the disease & undercut scientists.
“Messages need to be consistent,” Birx said today at a Wall St Journal conference of CEOs. “We need to be more consistent battling myths — COVID doesn’t exist, fatalities are made up, hospitalizations are for non-COVID diseases, masks actually hurt you.”
A vaccination campaign will take many months & experts warn of a continuing surge of infections in coming weeks from holiday gatherings.
California officials paint a dire picture as 22,000+ residents test positive daily, with 12% inevitably admitted at hospitals in 2-3 weeks. They fear the spike will soon overwhelm ICUs. Riverside University Medical Center went so far as to open an ICU in a storage room.
For 11 of the last 12 days, North Carolina hit new highs of COVID hospitalized. The patient count doubled the past month to 2,400.
In Georgia, infections soared 70+% the past week & hospitals sound alarms of inability to absorb new patients.
The state averages 5,000+ cases a day. Still, Georgia ranks only 44th among states for most new cases per capita in the past 14 days as infections spread so rapidly everywhere else.
2,500+ COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday statewide. It’s below the summer peak of 3,200 but more than 2x the most recent low point in Oct.
“We reversed gains made post-summer surge,” said epidemiologist Amber Schmidtke, who does a daily analysis of Georgia COVID.
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