(JTA) — The wedding of the grandson of Satmar Grand Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum will be for family only after plans for a reception for tens of thousands of well-wishers drew condemnation from New York officials. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that state health officials had issued a formal public health order putting a…
As COVID-19 test positivity rates continue to climb in Orthodox communities in New York, a major leader of the Satmar Hasidic sect was put on a ventilator Wednesday morning after becoming critically ill with COVID-19, according to Yeshiva World News. Flyers circulated online Wednesday morning calling for prayers for Mayer Rispler, a community leader in…
Some Haredi yeshiva day schools in Brooklyn and the New York and New Jersey suburbs are discouraging COVID-19 testing for both teachers and students to try to avoid school closures despite an uptick in cases in Haredi communities broadly. At Bais Yaakov of Borough Park, for example, administrators called teachers individually and asked them to…
Controversy erupted on Tuesday night after thousands of people in Brooklyn marched in a funeral procession, in violation of social distancing rules, honoring a late rabbi affiliated with the Satmar sect of Haredi Orthodox Judaism (sometimes referred to as “Ultra-Orthodox”). The Satmars are adherents of Hasidism, a mystical branch of Orthodox Judaism with dozens of…
Read this article in Yiddish. A principal at United Talmudical Academy, a complex of schools serving the ultra-Orthodox Satmar community, told a teacher to hold classes in person despite coronavirus social distancing orders, according to a school answering machine recording from last week. In the recording, the teacher, a man identified as Mr. Weiss, tells…
New York City officials have halted an underground yeshiva that was operating in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, despite coronavirus social-distancing restrictions, a spokeswoman from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said. “As soon as we found out, we worked with community leaders and this particular school to immediately stop this reckless practice,” said the spokeswoman, Olivia Lapeyrolerie. She…
Orthodox yeshivas for boys in Williamsburg are running underground schools in closed synagogues and apartment buildings despite social distancing requirements imposed by the city and state to try to slow the spread of coronavirus, a parent whose child attended one of the secret schools told the Forward. UPDATE: NYC breaks up one secret yeshiva operating…
Two Satmar mikvahs are unofficially open despite claims to the contrary, according to WhatsApp messages, videos and eyewitness testimony provided to the Forward. The videos, taken between 5:30 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday, show Orthodox Jews coming and going from Satmar synagogue buildings on South 8th Street and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in…
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