Yesterday, a Jewish school in Brooklyn, NY was found hosting students learning in apparent violation of Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order. While Agudath Israel of America neither runs nor controls any yeshivos, if any yeshiva violated the Executive Order as it stands, there are no excuses for such behavior. Period.
That said, this incident speaks to a larger issue. Courts in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas have struck down Executive Orders that shuttered churches, on the grounds that such orders unlawfully prohibited the free exercise of religion. Yeshivos in our community serve both educational and religious functions, as they transmit our core religious values. Moreover, children have been home for months. Orthodox families tend to be larger, and many live in small, urban apartments. The mental health toll of this pandemic on children and parents alike has been crushing.
As COVID-19 cases in New York have dropped for over a month now, and the state is allowing professional sports to resume and jewelry stores to reopen in its Phase 1, the state must prioritize seeking unambiguously safe ways to reopen schools and summer camps for children. We have offered to government that even if a prudent reopening would mandate significant changes in the structure of the classroom or camping experience, this would be far better than the sweeping prohibitions currently in place.
We similarly urge the Governor to find safe and responsible ways to allow prayer. Toward that end, Agudath Israel has also met with leading members of the executive branch on this issue. To be clear, the goal is not to encourage opening prematurely or unsafely, but to work with government to ensure that these vital areas are prioritized to open with the utmost caution, but expediently.
Religious expression and children’s education should not be last on the list of priorities for safe reopening. In fact, by both legal and moral imperative, they should be among the first.
We urge New York to consider and accelerate these requests, while we simultaneously urge our community to obey the current Executive Order, as difficult as it is for us and all Americans, until it is updated.
Thank you
Bravo!
What about weddings? How are we supposed to marry off our engaged children?! 10 ppl in a backyard? I have 10 ppl loving under my roof and that’s not counting the kallah?!
Is there really no excuse for Violating the order?! How about ones love for Torah And Yidishkeit. And the absolute intolerance of seeing children wasting away doing nothing the whole entire day. Does that warrant any action and if so what type of action?
Professional sports would be without fans there. Not a fair comparison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M197KW0aJyI
IF: “Courts in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas have struck down Executive Orders that shuttered churches, on the grounds that such orders unlawfully prohibited the free exercise of religion.” THEN WHY ARE: “there are no excuses for such behavior. Period.”
Let’s try this game. Highlight the differences….
“Yesterday, a Jewish school in Moscow was found hosting students learning in apparent violation of Comrade Stalin’s Executive Order. While the yevsektsia neither runs nor controls any yeshivos, if any yeshiva violated the Executive Order as it stands, there are no excuses for such behavior. Period.”
The big difference is that the evil Stalin and his other Communist cohorts, Yimach Shemam V’zichram, brazenly proclaimed that their purpose in closing Yeshivos and Shuls and Botei Medroshim and imprisoning and killing Rabbonim and Melamdim (just like, Lehavdil, they closed down churches and other Christian institutions and jailed and killed priests and other clergy), was to, Chas V’Shalom, totally eradicate all religion and all belief in and devotion to Hashem. By glaringly sharp contrast, here, the Gezeiros of the Lockdowns — on the surface — were absolutely NOT in any way at all, to, Chas V’shalom, harm anyone’s religion and devotion to Hashem. Instead, they were instituted as emergency MEDICAL measures to try to stop the frightening spread of a severely dangerous hyper-contagious disease.
And all our Gedolay Torah emphatically declared that we must certainly fully adhere to these measures. For, as they eloquently explained, our Torah HaKdosha itself glaringly states that we absolutely must clearly avoid any situation that might be a threat to human life, and if the performance of a certain Mitzva would be in such a situated way of possibly threatening human life, then, in that particular case, that action of the “Mitzva” is not a Mitzva!! So here, the same Hashem Who strongly instructs us to, for example, Davin B’Tzibbur – pray to Him in a congregation, that same Hashem equally strongly instructs that if there is a situation where gathering in a congregation might threaten our lives, then we MUST NOT pray in a congregation.
(Continuation of my previous explanation)
Please notice though, that when I stated that the lockdowns were emergency medical measures and not against religion, I stressed that this was “on the surface.” Yes, ON THE SURFACE, the announcements were that these were urgently needed emergency medical measures (and thus, of course, it was self-understood that they had nothing to do with interfering with any religion).
HOWEVER, as time went on, several items popped up that were — I will use that super cliche word — “VERY INTERESTING”:
1.) In a later remark here, I pointed out that throughout the entire Lockdown episode, arrangements were made for people to be able to still go to supermarkets to purchase their groceries. Understandably, the WAY that people were allowed to go for groceries was very tightly limited with many strict restrictions, but (with those conditions) they were still allowed to go, and the supermarkets were still allowed to be open. So, there is a “little” question here: “Why couldn’t the same type of arrangements be made for people to go pray at houses of worship?” Yes, of course, the-house-of-worship-going would have to be with the same quite a lot of limitations and restrictions, but why (with those conditions) could the people not go, and why did all the houses of worship have to be totally closed?
Now, it was stated that the allowances for grocery shopping were because getting food is “essential,” but religious observances are certainly no less “essential”!! These are not my own words; I heard a video of the arch-conservative-libertarian news commentator, David Knight, in which he sharply exclaims: “G-D IS NOT ESSENTIAL?????????”
Breaking:Justice Department tells California to reopen churchesnow!
https://youtu.be/tQor8ih1sPI
It is well known that our Mesorah in Galus that regarding matters of Das =Religion that we fight unabashedly with Mesiras Nefesh and we DEMAND Forcefully with Mesiras Nefesh our Freedom of Worship and Study ,
Not so on matters financial nature, losses or restrictions, THERE we are to turn a blind eye wait for a better day for we have gezaras hagalus and bow our heads in submission to our Galus.
See Reb Elchonon Wasserman in his Beikvisah Dimeshicha where he states this very clearly.
Very excellent observation!! Also, please see a similar theme explained in the Peirush of Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, ZT’L, on Chumash in Parshas Vaiyishlach, in the fifth Aliya on the Ma’asei of Dina in Shechem.
Why dont they file a lawsuit . They filed multiple lawsuits for eiruvin I would think shuls and yeshivos are more important!
See the article:
Courts in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas have struck down Executive Orders that shuttered churches, on the grounds that such orders unlawfully prohibited the free exercise of religion.
That is a veiled threat to sue.
their is no way closing a parochial school would be recognized as stifled freedom of religion during a pandemic. because it’s not like they only closed parochial schools they closed all schools. now a shul is purely a religious institution so their is more a leg to stand on. a school is a mix.
No covid reinfection! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uATMbGK__Tg
The Agudath Israel statement beautifully expressed: “As COVID-19 cases in New York have dropped for over a month now, and the state is allowing professional sports to resume and jewelry stores to reopen in its Phase 1, the state must prioritize seeking unambiguously safe ways to reopen schools and summer camps for children . . . . . We similarly urge the Governor to find safe and responsible ways to allow prayer . . . . . Religious expression and children’s education should not be last on the list of priorities for safe reopening. In fact, by both legal and moral imperative, they should be among the first.”
The key point of it is the last two lines, which, to emphasize it, I will repeat: “Religious expression and children’s education should not be last on the list of priorities for safe reopening. In fact, by both legal and moral imperative, they should be among the first.”
The actual truth, as we can all well remember, is that RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING — AT THE HEIGHT — OF THE CRISES when there were almost total lockdowns, EVEN THEN full allowances were made for what were termed “essential services.” So, albeit with severely strict restrictions and limitations, supermarkets were open and people were able to go to them and buy their groceries.
So the arch-conservative-libertarian-behind-the-scenes news commentator, David Knight, exclaimed what is truly a sharply incisive rebuke of the excessively low state of the mentality of our contemporary world:
“FOOD IS ESSENTIAL” (and, obviously, he IS NOT disagreeing with the fact that food is certainly essential, but his complaint is)
“FOOD IS ESSENTIAL, BUT, G-D IS NOT ‘ESSENTIAL’?????????”
L’Aniyus Da’ati, his complaint seems to be 1,000% correct!! The official/medical/governmental declaration then was that, again, with the numerous tight limitations and restrictions, people were able to go buy their groceries, and that was OK (for with adhering to the restrictions, there was no COVID threat). So, FROM DAY #1, why could they have not made similar arrangements, of the many, many tight restrictions and limitations, for people to go pray to G-D at their religious centers and maybe even to some degree to go study the Holy Books at their religious schools???????