UNSAFE SECTS
Hasids face new slap for large weddings
Gov. Cuomo promised to crack down on large social events in Brooklyn after The Post reported three Borough Park banquet halls appeared to be hosting Hasidic Jewish wedding parties on just one night this week — even after Mayor de Blasio warned similar gatherings led to an “uptick” in coronavirus cases.
“In the case of New York City, if there’s any evidence, or plans of weddings that would violate the law, they should forward those complaints to the NYPD or the mayor. If the mayor is not doing any enforcement actions, then the state will,” Cuomo said Wednesday during a call with reporters.
“We’ve had super-spreader events in New Rochelle with the Jewish community, we’ve had them in the Catholic community. The virus does not discriminate by religious or racial lines, right? This is an equal-opportunity situation. So we police it in every circumstance,” Cuomo said.
He vowed to crack down on violators of all types: “Whether it’s young people at a bar or religious people at a wedding, it’s the same thing to me. It’s ignorant, it’s disrespectful and it violates the law.”
The Post reported on three Borough Park banquet halls — the Torah Vyirah Hall, the Ateres Chaya Hall and Orh Hachaim Viznitz Hall — some with papercovered windows, apparently hosting large wedding parties on Monday night. Crowds of up to 200 filled the halls along a 10block stretch of 53rd and 54th streets, The Post found.
De Blasio did not comment on the Borough Park events during his press briefing Wednesday, but he did say that the predominantly Hasidic neighborhood has a positive test rate of 2.5 percent — well above the citywide average of under 1 percent. Brooklyn’s Sunset Park also has a 2.5 percent rate.
Chevra Hatzalah, an Orthodox Jewish volunteer ambulance service based in Brooklyn, sent out a community advisory Tuesday about the spike.
“Large gatherings of any kind must be avoided,” Chevra’s medical board warned.
Mayoral spokesman Mitch Schwartz said the “city is conducting extensive outreach and doing proactive inspections of event spaces.” He would not comment specifically on the four Borough Park catering halls that hosted weddings this month. Sources have said — and photographs of the events show — they far exceeded the state’s 50-person limit for gatherings.
A City Hall rep told The Post Tuesday the city was issuing a civil summons for a Borough Park catering hall for serving food without a permit and failing to comply with state gathering limits. The spokesman did not identify the location, but said the hall faces $2,000 in fines.