The religious leaders of the Federation of Synagogues have issued a strong statement to say that people who do not observe the required quarantine after coming from abroad should be banned from simchahs.
Jewish weddings are set to resume after three weeks following the fast of Tishah b’Av next Thursday.
The Rav of the Federation, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman and his three dayanim say: “It has come to our attention that people have been arriving in the UK from abroad, from countries that are still experiencing a widespread epidemic, who are not observing the 14-day quarantine that the government has imposed”.
As a result, “they are putting other people’s lives at risk and there have been reported cases of these people infecting others.”
It is “completely forbidden for anyone from one of these countries to ignore the quarantine rules,” they make clear.
Simchah hosts are “responsible to ensure that no one in such a situation will attend their simchos.
“Furthermore, it is forbidden for anyone else to attend a simchah or minyan if they are aware that someone who has ignored the quarantine rules is present.”
Government regulations require people to self-isolate for 14 days after arriving from Israel or the USA (although that is no longer the case with countries such as France or Belgium).
Last week Barnet and Haringey, the boroughs with the largest Jewish populations, recorded the highest rise in cases in London for that week.
A mobile unit will be offering coronavirus tests outside a Jewish school in Stamford Hill over the next two Sundays.
But one anonymous notice circulating within a Jewish social media group urged people not to take a test unless “it’s a must", otherwise this could increase the local case rate and lead to a lockdown
