The number of New Yorkers hospitalized with the coronavirus continues to rise, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday, as authorities heightened their focus on banning mass gatherings in COVID-19 hot spots. Cuomo announced that 826 people were hospitalized with the virus — the highest number since July 15. State officials said eight New Yorkers died of the coronavirus on Friday. Still, the governor insisted the “numbers remain good news,” noting that public health officials traced 18% of positive tests this week to a so-called “Red Zone” that’s home to 2.8% of the state population. Six coronavirus clusters have cropped up in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as Broome, Orange and Rockland counties. The state has closed schools and nonessential businesses in those areas and limited gatherings.

(By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com) In light of the significant uptick in COVID-19 cases, four of Lakewoods Poskim issued a Kol Koreh as to how people should act exactly during the impending Yomim Tovim. It was signed by Rabbi Yaakov Forcheimer, Rabbi Uri Deutsch, Rabbi Chaim Meir Roth, Rabbi Henoch Shachar and Rabbi Ayreh Sharbenter. In their ruling the Poskim reiterated the absolute imperative to make sure that Simchas Torah not be a source of further spread.  They emphasized the obligation of the hour to express love and honor of Torah in a different way this year. They called for toned down Hakafos, no close contact, and shorter hakafos – preferably not longer than 5 minutes. All those who participate in Hakafos should wear masks. Women and children should wear masks as well.

Heshy Tischler announced on social media that he has been informed that he will be arrested on Monday morning after Simchas Torah. “I just got a call from the precinct,” Tischler rambles in the video below. “They will be arresting me Monday morning. I’ll be taken in for inciting riot. Jacob Kornbluh, who harassed me the night before, that they don’t want to file charges for as of yet, he harassed me. They are telling everyone that I incited a riot, and Mr Kornbluh, the D.A., is going to be arresting me, on Monday morning to the 66 Precinct….” “Mr Kornbluh is a very terrible bad man”, Tischler continued. Tischler also apologized to Mrs DebLasio for calling her a “very bad name”.

After months of grappling with a pandemic that has walloped New York’s Orthodox Jewish communities, prompting changes to holidays, mourning and prayers, new limits on worship and other activity in some areas are pushing tensions in some neighborhoods of Brooklyn to the boiling point. New restrictions in places where coronavirus cases are rising, including several Orthodox areas, led to street protests Tuesday night. Videos posted on social media showed hundreds of Orthodox men gathered in the streets of Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood, in some cases setting bonfires by burning masks, and a crowd attacking a man who filmed the unrest. On Wednesday night, crowds of men returned to the streets as police watched.

“Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jews burn masks in violent protests.” So ran a recent Washington Post headline. This stands in stark contrast to the great lengths the media went to cast Black Lives Matter protests as “mostly peaceful ” despite it resulting in more than a billion dollars in damages, making it the costliest riots in history. While only a handful out of the several hundred protesters got physical in the altercations over the past few nights, it is nevertheless cast as the defining part of the event by malicious media and politicians. When asked during a press conference why no arrests had been made, de Blasio said, “There is something here that needs to be fixed right away.

A tweet from former NYS Assemblyman Dov Hikind went viral in seconds the past 30 minutes, claiming that the judge overruled NY Governor Cuomo and said that Shuls can be 50% capacity. This is 100% false. The Court has issued an Order setting a hearing for 1:30PM tomorrow and requiring the Governor to submit any opposition papers by 11:00AM tomorrow morning. (Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto, a George W. Bush appointee.) Hikind later deleted the tweet and apologized. JOIN THE TENS OF THOUSANDS WHO ALREADY ARE ALERTED OF BREAKING NEWS LIKE THIS IN LIVE TIME: YWN WHATSAPP STATUS UPDATES: CLICK HERE to join the YWN WhatsApp Status. YWN WHATSAPP GROUPS: CLICK HERE to be dded to an official YWN WhatsApp Group. My sincere apologies to all who reacted to this tweet.

Mr. Tischler is a rabble rouser of the worst type, calling government officials who generally respect, and assist, the Jews of NY, horrific names is crass, and is the WORST type of chilul Hashem. This is NOT what Hashem expects of us in galus; he is appealing to the lowest element, trying to garner votes, but is ultimately making things worse for those who earnestly, and correctly, understand that large capacity shuls can safely host more than 10 men inside. Let Agudah, with saner minds and avoiding use of bad language, try handle this problem. But, where are the various Rebbes? They need to speak out against their followers who are not using their seichel (those who have some) when demonstrating incorrectly.

20 Tishrei, Day 4 Chol Hamoed Succos 5781 OUR KEHILLOS ARE CONFRONTED WITH THREE ALARMING REALITIES. EACH DEMANDS OUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. • Although, very thankfully, we see nothing of the horrific rates of infection from COVID-19 and the dreadful proportions of serious illness and death ר”ל of the past spring, still, there has been an indisputable rise of sickness again in our populations, some cases with serious consequences. • The perception of our communities’ laxity in compliance with governmental and medical guidelines of social distancing and masking, bolstered by a statistical actuality of a disproportionate rate of infection as compared to the general population, has painted us in a negative light across the country.

The attached images were provided to YWN by NYC Councilman Kalman Yeger. These images are clear maps of the color-coded COVI “hotspot” zones in NYC.
The post HERE ARE THE MAPS: Clear Maps of Color-Coded COVID Hotspot Zones In NYC appeared first on The Yeshiva World.

Hundreds of businesses in New York City neighborhoods where COVID-19 cases have spiked were supposed to be closed Thursday by order of the governor, but questions remained about how effectively officials would be able to enforce shutdown rules in areas where they’ve been met with resentment. In Brooklyn’s Borough Park section, the scene of two nights of protests against the restrictions, some merchants subject to the shutdown order appeared to be operating as usual at midday, including a barber shop, cell phone stores and a toy store. Mayor Bill de Blasio said 1,200 city workers would be out on the streets Thursday doing enforcement, though some of those efforts involved trying to educate businesses about rules imposed with little warning in hastily drawn zones with confusing borders.