By Aiden Pink March 18, 2020

Multiple coronavirus diagnoses have been confirmed in Lakewood, N.J., The Lakewood Scoop reported Thursday.

Lakewood has one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the United States, with an estimated 59% of the population Jewish, according to a 2011 study.

While many of Lakewood’s synagogues had shut down as the coronavirus pandemic spread throughout the state and country, not all of them did: at least one attempted to stay open while complying with regulations by staggering multiple service times in order to avoid having more than 50 people gather at once, and public safety officials have had to break up at least two weddings that had more than that many guests.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

As a public service during this pandemic, the Forward is providing free, unlimited access to all coronavirus articles. If you’d like to support our independent Jewish journalism, click here to make a donation.

But in the past day, according to the Scoop, much of Lakewood’s remaining Jewish life has shut down, according to the Scoop, such as wedding halls and yeshivas — including Beth Medrosh Govoha, the biggest yeshiva in the United States with more than 6,700 students.

A sign on the door of the yeshiva read “Stop! Do not enter!” and urged students to pray and study at home, the Scoop reported.

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount