Affidavit of Rabbi Yisroel Reisman — Agudath Israel v. Cuomo

Record facts

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York · No. 1:20-cv-04834-KAM-RML · Doc. 2-21 · 2020-10-08 · Docket on CourtListener

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110594784v3  
 
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK 
 
 
AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA, AGUDATH ISRAEL OF 
KEW GARDEN HILLS, AGUDATH ISRAEL OF MADISON, 
AGUDATH ISRAEL OF BAYSWATER, RABBI YISROEL 
REISMAN, RABBI MENACHEM FEIFER, and STEVEN 
SAPHIRSTEIN,  
 
Plaintiffs, 
 
vs 
 
GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO  
 
Defendant. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
AFFIDAVIT OF RABBI YISROEL REISMAN  
 
 
1. 
I am a Plaintiff in this action, and I serve as the Rabbi of Agudath Israel of Madison, 
which is also a Plaintiff in this lawsuit.  
Our Synagogue 
2. 
Agudath Israel of Madison is a synagogue that was founded in 1989.  I have been 
its Rabbi since its inception.  Our synagogue serves more than 300 men and women each week.  
Our primary activities are worship services, which are conducted every day.  The services on 
Saturdays and on Jewish holidays are particularly important.  Our main sanctuary has a legal 
capacity of 186, and our lower and upper levels each have capacities of more than 145.  
3. 
Our synagogue has been fully compliant with all mandates issued by New York 
State and New York City since the onset of the pandemic.  We suspended services in mid-March,  
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and remained closed until permission was granted to resume services around Memorial Day.  Since 
then, we have at all times operated in conformity with all health requirements.  We are pleased 
that we have not had a congregant with COVID for many, many months. 
4. 
We have added services to comply with the restrictions on capacity.  To provide 
the most recent example, we are currently in the middle of the holiday of Succos. In normal times, 
we would have a single holiday service at 8:30am.  In light of the pandemic, however, we had 
services at 7:15, 8:30 and 9:15, and the 8:30 service also used the courtyard that abuts our main 
sanctuary.  Every congregant wears a mask, at every service.  
The Governor’s New Executive Order  
5. 
The recently enacted executive order makes it impossible for my synagogue and 
congregants to fulfill both their religious obligations and their limitations of the new Order. 
6. 
For synagogues in the “red zone,” as mine is, worship services are limited to 10 
people.  For the Jewish holidays that we will observe this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it is 
practically impossible to conduct services for all of our congregants. 
7. 
This Friday, October 9, is the holiday of Hoshana Rabbah. It marks the conclusion 
of the Days of Judgment that began with Rosh Hashona.  There are special, additional services and 
ritual that are required that day.  In particular, there are seven additional prayers followed by the 
traditional beating of a willow branch in the synagogue.  This tradition dates back two thousand 
years, to the times of the Temple.  Services also require reading from a Torah scroll.  
8. 
Hoshana Rabbah services take at least ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes. 
It is a practical impossibility to have services for my congregants on Hoshanna Rabba in groups 
limited to ten.  Even if only two hundred people came to services, that would require twenty 
different services, each lasting at least ninety to one hundred twenty minutes, on Friday morning. 
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9. 
By contrast, under the existing rules, we could utilize all the various spaces of our 
synagogue to have four or five services, using indoor and outdoor space.  
10. 
This Saturday, October 10, is the holiday of Shmini Atzeres.  Among the special 
features of the holiday is the Yizkor service, which is the Prayer for Departed Relatives. This 
prayer is only recited four times a year.  The next recitation is not until Passover, in April. These 
additional prayers by men and woman alike are particularly emotional, are led by the Rabbi, take 
an additional fifteen minutes and are only offered in group (rather than individual) prayer.  It would 
be particularly devastating for congregants to be deprived of this prayer on Saturday.  Yet under 
the Governor’s order, it is impossible for them to do so.   
11. 
Shmini Atzeres is also the only day of the year when we read Ecclesiastes, which 
Orthodox Jews accept as the Book of Wisdom.  In my and many other synagogues, it is read from 
a parchment and requires a trained cantor.  Again, it is impossible to comply with both the Jewish 
law requirements to read Ecclesiastes in a congregate setting and the Governor’s new Order.  We 
should not be forced to choose which mandate to follow.  That is especially so when the existing 
capacity restrictions work and have been implemented.  
12. 
The next day, Sunday October 11, is Simchas Torah. Its literal translation is the Joy 
of the Torah.  In celebration of the completion of the annual cycle of Torah readings, each 
congregant is called to the Torah for a short reading.  The Rabbi is then traditionally called to read 
the final portion of the Torah, after which the first portion of the Torah is read.  These Torah 
readings, in addition to the regular services, take time.   
13. 
Again, it is impossible to conduct services for all of our congregants on Simchas 
Torah if we are limited to ten worshippers.  There simply is not enough time to do even the Torah 
readings required of the day, let along the services.   
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14. 
 By contrast, we would be able to comply with both our religious and civil dictates 
if the existing capacity restrictions remain in place through this holiday period. 
The Disproportionate Impact of the Executive Order on Orthodox Worship Services 
15. 
In addition to being targeted at Orthodox Jews the Order essentially only truly limits 
Orthodox worship services.  Here is why: 
16. 
This Order covers limited geographic areas.  There are no restrictions in adjacent 
areas.  Thus, the Orthodox Jew in a red zone can continue to shop at the supermarket ten minutes 
away that he regularly drives to and can continue to go to the office in downtown Brooklyn or 
Manhattan  that she regularly commutes to.  But since Orthodox Jews are prohibited from vehicular 
travel on Saturdays and Holidays, they worship in synagogues close to their homes that they can 
walk to.  For that reason, Orthodox synagogues are clustered in the residential neighborhoods of 
their congregants.  The effect of this is that the only activity of my congregants that the Order 
makes impossible is their worship on the upcoming holidays. 
17. 
For the same reasons, it is only Orthodox Jews who will experience the full effects 
of this Order.  There is no doubt that other religious worshippers and ministers fall into these zones 
as well.  But the worshipper and officiant who attends Friday services at their mosque at least 
retains the option to travel to a nearby mosque for services.  Similarly, the Catholic parishioner 
and priest whose Sunday Church service is impacted can travel to Church in an adjacent 
community.  It is only the Orthodox Jewish worshipper who is totally deprived of the ability to 
participate in services. 
18. 
To be clear, the foregoing is not meant to diminish or justify the impact on our co-
religionists.  The Order unfairly, unnecessarily and unconstitutionally restricts their Free Exercise 
of Religion.  We merely note the disproportionate effect the Order has on Orthodox Jews.  
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19. 
One real world consequence of these new restrictions will be felt by two young 
orphans who worship in my synagogue. The Yizkor prayers are particularly important to them. 
Yet these new restrictions make it impossible for them to participate, since they would be unable 
to gather with the 10 adult men required for this prayer. 
Conclusion 
20. 
Those of us challenging the Governor's Order to do reluctantly, and only as a last 
resort to protect the ability of ourselves and our congregants to comply with Jewish law. We are 
a coalition of the complaint: our synagogues have followed all closure, capacity limitation, 
social distancing and masking requirements. The Governor has publicly conceded that there has 
been no enforcement of those requirements against those who have not voluntarily complied. 
But that is punishment, not public health. Let there be strict enforcement of the existing rules — 
that work and allow safety and services to coexist — before imposing punitive and draconian new 
rules that bring those into conflict. 
Executed this ^j day of October 2020, at Brooklyn, New York. 
cTh 
YISROEL REI MAN 
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