Cops Bust BK Orthodox School Open Despite Coronavirus

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — An Orthodox Jewish school in Bed-Stuy that apparently continued to operate despite a statewide coronavirus closure got shut down by the NYPD, authorities said.

About 60 students were inside the yeshiva at 841 Madison St. when cops showed up Monday, police said. They arrived after receiving a 311 call about the school being "in session" inside the building near Ralph Avenue, according to the NYPD.

Police told the man who ran the school to close it, and he followed their instructions, authorities said. The students all left the building — a scene captured in photographs published by NBC4.

NYPD didn't issue any summonses, authorities said.

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The incident is the latest bust featuring some members of Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community flouting social distancing guidelines or statewide "stay-at-home" orders.

Videos of large funerals and weddings in mostly-Hasidic neighborhoods have gone viral. And police started cracking down on similar gatherings.

Mayor Bill de Blasio decried such gatherings but garnered controversy when he directed his criticism at "the Jewish community" — which many feared would stoke the flames of anti-Semitism. Indeed, many people in the Orthodox Jewish community have said such comments ignore the majority who follow the guidelines and the human toll the coronavirus has taken in their neighborhoods.

Last week, a Queens duo lobbed anti-Semitic slurs at a group of Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg and attacked them, according to reports.

"You're the reason why we're getting sick," the pair yelled before they pulled masks off three mens' faces.

The pair face a hate crime charge.

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