Police in Lakewood, N.J. arrested an Orthodox rabbi for violating state shutdown and distancing rules, as well as obstruction of justice and resisting arrest, after he hosted a bonfire for the Jewish holiday Lag B’Omer on Monday night. The rabbi, Yisrael Knopfler, is suing the state over the shutdown rules, which he claim violate his…
Lakewood, N.J., is a famously devout and rapidly growing town centered around the biggest yeshiva outside Israel — Beth Medrash Govoha. Its citizens devote their lives to fulfilling the Torah’s dictates, including the one many consider to be the first: be fruitful and multiply. When the onset of New Jersey’s strict social-distancing rules meant to…
More than $15,000 has been raised in three days for the former employee of a Lakewood, N.J. kosher grocery store who died of the coronavirus. Lancelot Diaz-Hernandez, 20, passed away after spending two weeks in the hospital fighting complications from COVID and pneumonia, the Asbury Park Press reported. A GoFundMe page to aid with medical…
(JTA) — A New Jersey man sent Facebook messages to Gov. Phil Murphy and others threatening harm Orthodox Jews for violating state coronavirus restrictions. Anthony Lodespoto, 43, of Howell, was charged Friday with making terroristic threats during a state of emergency, law enforcement officials said in a statement. Lodespoto allegedly used Facebook’s direct messaging feature…
(JTA) — The coronavirus pandemic has spurred anti-Semitic chatter connected to Lakewood, a New Jersey township with a large Orthodox population, on social networks. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy responded by condemning racism connected to the coronavirus. “Scapegoating, bullying, or vilification of any community is completely unacceptable – today or ever,” Murphy wrote on Twitter….
(JTA) — Police in Lakewood, New Jersey, have arrested at least two Jewish men for hosting weddings with more than 50 people present, in violation of state rules designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy last week banned gatherings of more than 50 people, and on Saturday morning he…
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…
Synagogues around the country have shut their doors to daily because of the coronavirus pandemic, but some, particularly among Hasidic and other Orthodox strains of Judaism, are taking extraordinary measures to find ways to stay open. One Orthodox synagogue in Lakewood, New Jersey — which has one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the…
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