The Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel of America have filed lawsuits against Governor
Cuomo's arbitrary and capricious COVID restrictions on religious assembly.
According to New York’s WABC-TV, The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn on Thursday, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the state of New York, on the basis of violating their First Amendment right, the free exercise of religion. The lawsuit is in response to the New York State executive order issued this week that reduces capacity at Catholic Churches throughout Brooklyn and Queens.
"The executive orders this week have left us with no other option than to go to court. Our churches have the capacity to accommodate many worshippers and to reset our attendance capacity to 10 people maximum in the red zone, and 25 people in the orange zone, when we have had no significant cases, impedes our right to worship and cannot stand," Bishop of Brooklyn Nicholas DiMarzio said. "The State has completely disregarded the fact that our safety protocols have worked and it is an insult to once again penalize all those who have made the safe return to Church work."
In addition, Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish group, filed a federal lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order against New York State's enforcement of attendance limits on houses of worship.
The limits, announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo just two days ago, would cap Shul and other houses of worship attendance in so-called "red zones" to ten individuals.
"This is something which is very devastating to communities of faith," Rabbi David Zwiebel of Agudath Israel of America said. "Why in the world would a large shul with large capacity be treated the same as a small shul?"
Other groups in the filing were Agudath Israel of Kew Garden Hills, Agudath Israel of Bayswater, Congregation Zichron Moshe Dov, Rabbi Yisroel Reisman, Rabbi Menachem Feifer, Rabbi Aaron Stein and Steven Saphirstein.
"Social distancing, masking, and all health precautions must, of course, be observed," said Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel. "However, we think that it is possible to stay safe and at the same time have more than ten people in a Shul building that is meant to hold hundreds."
Deep animosity was directed towards the Mayor Bill de Blasio for singling out these alleged hot spot neighborhoods to begin with, reported WABC.
"He knows that most of the Jews are gonna vote for Trump and he doesn't want that to happen," Midwood resident Rachel Aviv said. "So he thinks that if he locks us down and keeps us in our homes, then we will not be able to go out to vote."
During a recent news conference New York’s Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed the opposition to his arbitrary and capricious lockdown orders on President Trump.
“Here the Trump campaign wants to inflame divisions. Meanwhile, they are putting people's lives at risk. 20% of the cases coming from these districts. 20% from 2.8%. some of those people will die. What is the Trump campaign saying, play politics. Play politics. It's disgusting," Democrat Cuomo said.
The governor also read a tweet from Jewish protest organizer Heshy Tischer saying, "Urgent: Who can print 'Cuomo hates Jews.' 'Cuomo killed thousands' on flags.”
Governor Cuomo’s protests that his orders are motivated purely by health concerns ring hollow in the aftermath of the attacks Jews and Catholics have suffered at the hands of the anti-religious Left in New York.
There have been three recent reported incidents of Catholic Church vandalism; Resurrection Roman Catholic Church on Gerritsen Ave in Marine Park, Brooklyn was vandalized, in September, a suspect picked up a statue outside a Catholic church in Coney Island and tossed it to the sidewalk below, causing significant damage to the statue, and in June, a vandal spray-painted a statue with the word "idol" in Queens.
And just last weekend a “Jews for Trump” car parade was attacked by Leftists who hurled rocks from overpasses on to cars below and assaulted members of the caravan as it passed through Times Square. In one incident a family of seven ‒ including four kids ‒ were pepper-sprayed by violent rioters.
The convoy of hundreds of cars draped with American flags and "Trump 2020" banners rolled slowly through Manhattan and Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. The caravan traveled from Coney Island to the Trump Tower in Manhattan before heading to a rally in a Brooklyn park running through a gantlet of abuse and assaults.
Chief Terence Monahan said that NYPD detectives are investigating the rock-throwing incident, but as yet there seems to be no let-up in the Leftist violence and government sponsored intimidation of New York’s Catholics and Jews who wish to do nothing more than practice their faith and express their political views in peace.
2020 Election
Joe Biden
Catholic voters
Jewish voters
New York City
religious liberty
riots
assaults
religious assembly
Governor Cuomo
First Amendment
lawsuit
Agudath Israel of America
social distancing
Mayor Bill de Blasio