Cuomo Sued by Orthodox Jewish Group Over Covid Restrictions

(Bloomberg) -- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was sued Thursday by Agudath Israel of America, a national grassroots Orthodox Jewish organization that advocates for synagogues, over new restrictions instituted in state coronavirus hot spots.

The group said in a complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn that Cuomo “has trampled” on Orthodox Jews’ “constitutional right to the Free Exercise of Religion.”

Cuomo on Tuesday announced new restrictions on businesses, schools and houses of worship in New York’s coronavirus hot spots. In the complaint, Agudath Israel, along with three of its 70 affiliated synagogues in the state, called Cuomo’s “cluster action” initiative “punitive” and unconstitutional. It asked the court to block enforcement, which is set to begin Friday.

“We’ve been sued virtually every day for every action taken,” Richard Azzopardi, senior adviser to the governor, said of the lawsuit. “We’re concentrating on reducing the virus in these hot spots and saving lives, period.”

The synagogues, the complaint says, have complied with all pandemic-related mandates and have implemented “strict health and safety protocols” akin to those at imposed on “secular activities,” which Cuomo “has permitted to operate under more favorable limitations.”

Mask Burnings

Neighborhoods with large Jewish populations are already chafing under a city-ordered enforcement crackdown on mask-wearing and social distancing. A group of Orthodox Jewish men on Tuesday night burned masks in protest of Cuomo’s order, which came just four days before the start of the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, a festival marked by hundreds dancing in the streets.

Community leaders denounced the governor’s move as ill-advised and doomed to failure. Avi Shafran, a New Yorker who is the national spokesman for Agudath Israel, said a phone call from the governor Tuesday morning “was more of a soliloquy than a dialogue,” as Cuomo lectured a group of rabbis on the need for police to enforce mask wearing and social distancing. Shafran said the governor didn’t mention the bans on mass gatherings that would limit the size of religious services throughout a broad section of Brooklyn.

“Unless he wants to call out the National Guard to break up gatherings of 40 in a room built to hold five times that many, we are going to see disobedience on a large scale,” Shafran said. “He’s gotten tens of thousands of people upset, and we are pleading with people to not let the governor’s rash actions prevent them from taking the proper precautions.”

Color-Coded Zones

Cuomo’s order established color-coded zones that limit attendance at houses of worship to 25% of capacity, with no more than 10 people inside; to 33% of capacity, with a maximum of 25 people inside; or to 50% of capacity, with indoors attendance also capped at 25 people.

At a news conference Thursday, Cuomo defended the new rules in the face of criticism from the Orthodox community, noting that synagogues were not being closed, as they were earlier in the pandemic.

“Why are they so upset about the current rule when there was a previous rule that were more dramatic?” the governor asked. “Because the previous rules were never enforced. That’s why. That’s why this rule seems harsh, because they never followed the first rules and because they were never enforced.”

The case is Agudath Israel of America v. Andrew M. Cuomo, 20-cv-4834, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

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