NYC Sheriff’s Office Withdraws All Shul Summonses and Fines Retroactively

By Yehudit Garmaise

Less than an hour after a Hamodia reporter asked Mayor Bill de Blasio whether he would cancel the $15,000 summonses that houses of worship were issued after Oct. 6, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared Boro Park a red-zone and capped the maximum attendance at shuls to 10 people or 25% capacity, City Councilman Kalman Yeger reported that the New York City Sheriff’s office would, in fact, be withdrawing all the summonses that were issued for violating the governor’s executive order.

     The time was exactly right to ask for the suspension of the summonses after yesterday, when New York District Court Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto issued a permanent injunction that effectively permanently voided Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order that limited attendance at houses of worship across New York State during the COVID-19 pandemic.

   “Yesterday a federal judge threw out the restrictions on houses of worship on red and orange zones, saying they were unconstitutional,” said the Hamodia reporter. “I just wanted to ask whether you were going to toss all the fines that you gave houses of worship, and if any houses of worship have paid fines, will you return the money?”

  “It’s a fair question,” said Mayor de Blasio, as he responded to the reporter. “I need to talk to the law department to see what they think of that decision and how we are going to proceed and how the state is going to proceed on that. 

   “We need houses of worship and everyone to think of health and safety first, and whatever happens in the court system, it doesn’t change the fact that we have got to be careful, and the vast majority of houses of worship did this: they limited the number of people, made people wear masks, and took a lot of smart precautions.”

    The mayor, who wants to keep working with clergy and faith communities to keep people safe, added that “especially with the variant out there, ”New Yorkers cannot let their guards down."