New Satmar wedding takes place in upstate Satmar town of Kiryas Yoel Monday night
By JEREMY SHARONA Satmar wedding takes place in Williamsberg, breaking coronavirus restrictions. November 2020(photo credit: Courtesy)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that the Satmar Kiryas Joel Hassidic community will be fined $15,000 for the massive, mask-less wedding it staged two weeks ago in Brooklyn in violation of city and state COVID-19 regulations.The wedding, staged on November 13, was that of Joel Teitelbaum, the grandson of Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, the head of the Satmar Hassidic community of Kiryas Joel, in upstate New York.It was held in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where there is also a large Satmar Kiryas Joel community, and where the father of the groom serves as its head.Videos of the massive wedding celebrations emerged last week showing thousands of hassidim standing shoulder to shoulder on bleachers, singing, jumping and swaying together inside the Satmar Kiryas Joel synagogue complex in Brooklyn.The wedding was arranged with great secrecy to avoid detection by New York state and city officials.“There appeared to be a real effort to conceal it, which is absolutely unacceptable. There’s going to be a summons for $15,000 immediately for that site, and there could be additional consequences as well,” de Blasio told Spectrum News NY1 on Monday.The two branches of the Satmar Hassidic community are the wealthiest hassidic dynasties in the world with the largest number of hassidim of any hassidic group in the world. In 2006, before the split in the community took place between the two sons of the late Grand Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, the dynasty was believed to have more than $1 billion in assets.On Monday night, another Satmar wedding was held in Kiryas Joel. It is unclear how many visitors attended the event, although the Daily Beast reported that the parking lot of the central synagogue was full by 5 p.m.
