Skverer Rebbe Unscathed in Deadly Car Accident Coming Home from Satmar Wedding

( JTA ) — On Saturday dark, shortly after observant Jews went dorsum online after Shabbat, Orthodox media outlets, Twitter accounts, and WhatsApp groups were ablaze about news that had broken several hours earlier.

At his afternoon press briefing, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appear that his part would shut downwardly a planned wedding for the grandson of Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, the Williamsburg Satmar Rabbi, which organizers said would attract as many as 10,000 followers. In the days leading upwards to the governor'south statement, I was the sole voice warning, both on social media and via individual channels, near this upcoming potential "super spreader" event.

Only hither'southward how the pop Orthodox news site Yeshiva Globe News reported on it:

"YWN notes that the rabid self-antisocial Jew Naftali [sic] Moster of the YAFFED Organisation who has been working for years b'mesiras nefesh [with relentless zeal] to destroy our Mosdos Hatorah [Torah institutions and schools], has the past few days been alerting the media and the government about this nuptials."

YWN is keenly aware of the dangers of whipping up the oversupply against individuals with such linguistic communication. Merely in the last two weeks they reported on the brutal attacks confronting Berish Getz and Jacob Kornbluh, a erstwhile YWN journalist at present with Jewish Insider, who were both accused of being " mosers" (snitches). Post-obit the incidents, YWN was widely praised for publishing an op-ed by Yehuda Rechnitz, an influential Orthodox millionaire, in which he denounced the main inciter of those attacks, Heshy Tischler .

Equally expected, a torrent of mean letters toward me followed the YWN article. I was called a "Nazi," a member of the "Judenrat," and a moser. One commenter on Vos iz Neias, some other Orthodox news site, wrote that I "must be taken out."

My motivation for reporting such irresponsible behavior outweighs the unpleasantness of the online harassment, although I am unfortunately well enlightened that it could escalate to concrete violence.

A calendar week ago on Mon, I received the get-go tip about the planned wedding from a Hasidic friend whom I had gotten to know through my work at Yaffed, the organization I founded, that aims to increase secular education standards in Hasidic and other ultra-Orthodox schools. In recent months, the tipster's greatest frustration has been the haredi Orthodox leadership'southward failure to serve every bit role models to the community members who take their cues from them, also as the media and government's failure to see through the breathy cant and doublespeak of community leaders.

He sent me a picture of the nuptials announcement featured in a Hasidic newspaper.

The proclamation read, in part, "Friends near and far, love students, delight participate in my celebration." Information technology provided the address of the big Satmar Shul of Williamsburg, and it was signed by Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, the g rabbi of Satmar of Williamsburg.

Despite having every reason to be jaded, my starting time reaction upon seeing the invitation was disbelief. By then, the metropolis and the state had already implemented new restrictions to control local clusters. Although Hasidic Williamsburg was not a red zone, information technology was near one, and health officials were concerned about the potential for infection spread. Too, there is no area of New York Land right now in which such a large in-person hymeneals would be permissible.

It is clear that Hasidic communities of New York are seeing a major uptick in positive cases due to a widespread failure to comply with public health regulations. I accept seen pictures and videos of the Sukkot celebrations in which scores of people were gathering in dozens of Hasidic synagogues around the state with no sign of masks or social distancing.

This pandemic has not been easy on anyone. My three-year-old son has not ready foot in day intendance or school, nor has he socialized comfortably with any children his age since March. And since one of his parents works total time and the other is a full-time student, in that location's just so much personalized attention we can requite him. In add-on to that, our most 4-month-one-time girl, born during the pandemic, has never been held by anyone besides me and my wife. Her grandparents have never even been inside 6 feet of her. No ane has set pes inside our firm since the shutdown.

Notwithstanding I know nosotros've had information technology easy compared to millions of others who have lost their jobs and who alive in tighter quarters than we do, not to mention those who take lost loved ones to the terrible virus.

Which is why, later learning of this unnecessary mass upshot, in a community that has suffered tremendous loss due to COVID-nineteen, I felt that I had to human action. In a gathering of this size, it is almost inevitable that the virus would strike the vulnerable. Stopping it from happening almost certainly meant saving lives.

Nonetheless, I won't deny I had other motivations. For years I have witnessed government officials cozying upward to one thousand rabbis like Zalman Leib and their gatekeepers. When the mayor was asked about the progress of the yeshiva investigation which was dragging on for many years, he often responded that he was "working with community leaders" who supposedly pledged improvements in the schools.

It had e'er been clear to me that the urban center is either intentionally or unwittingly being taken for a ride past leaders who in Yiddish oft said they had no intention of irresolute a thing. This was very much in line with what I had seen growing up in the Hasidic customs.

The lies around compliance with COVID regulations take been pronounced and explicit: One thousand rabbis property irresponsible mass events, even as their spokespeople are acting surprised that the city did not "engage" with them or that the governor is taking a tougher approach to them.

To me, despite the risks, it was worth trying to protect the health and well-being of tens of thousands of Hasidim and their children. And it meant the world to the Hasidic begetter whose tip led to far fewer people attention the wedding, preventing more unnecessary deaths in his customs.

is the executive manager of Yaffed, a nonprofit advocacy group committed to improving secular instruction in ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic yeshivas.

The views and opinions expressed in this commodity are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent visitor, 70 Faces Media.

Source: https://www.jta.org/2020/10/20/opinion/i-blew-the-whistle-on-the-planned-10000-person-satmar-wedding-heres-why

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