100s Defy Social Distancing At Crown Heights Synagogue: Report

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Hundreds of men defied social distancing restrictions earlier this week by packing into a Crown Heights synagogue for prayer services ahead of the Jewish High Holy Days, video reported on by Gothamist shows.

The video, published on Twitter by a journalist for an Israeli radio station, shows crowds, largely without masks, praying in the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters on Eastern Parkway on Sunday.

The gathering flouts to regulations put in place for New York's reopening plan from the coronavirus crisis, which requires no more than 33 percent of the occupancy at religious services and requires worshipers to stand six feet apart, or 12 feet apart while singing.

The news website COLlive said Saturday that masks were meant to be worn at all times during the headquarters' services and that masks would be distributed at the event.

A group of Orthodox Jewish healthcare professionals known as the Gedaliah Society said before the event that many positive cases "are associated with 770," another name for the headquarters.

They warned on Sunday of a rise in coronavirus cases in Crown Heights.

"It is critical that those at risk for serious illness remain protected," the group wrote in a statement on Sunday.

Read the full report on Gothamist here.