Coronavirus in Lakewood: Have residents been unfairly singled out as lawbreakers?

LAKEWOOD - "Lakewood should be put on a lockdown." "When will he shut down Lakewood?" "Something has to be done with this town." "This populace has no regard for state or federal law and is putting Ocean County residents in jeopardy."

These are responses — each pulled from the Asbury Park Press Facebook page — to each new report of a Lakewood gathering broken up by police in Ocean County's largest town, quickly becoming its COVID-19 epicenter, home to nearly 42% of all cases.

In the last two weeks, police in Lakewood have broken up five gatherings, including four weddings. Each report has engendered a cascade of recriminations. On Monday evening, Toms River police pulled over a school bus suspected of carrying students to an unidentified Lakewood school, but the district said the school bus was being used to deliver meals.

But the idea that Lakewood is some kind of hotbed of illegal activity?

That's a misconception, said New Jersey State Police Col. Patrick Callahan.

"While there have been a few instances of group gatherings that were addressed by law enforcement, the vast majority of the community understands the importance of social distancing and are complying with the executive order," he said in a statement Friday.

He added: "Law enforcement in our state have worked tirelessly to build relationships with our communities, and we will not let the actions of a few determine how a city is viewed."

The reality is that illegal gatherings have been held — and broken up — across the state. There have been 70 incidents across New Jersey since Gov. Phil Murphy's order banning gatherings went into effect, Callahan said.

Over the weekend, police in Ewing broke up a 50-person house party, including a DJ.

And towns along the Jersey Shore have begun closing their public beaches and boardwalks, eliminating pleasant springtime strolls by the sea in order to discourage people from turning them into de facto meet-ups.

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The offenders, those whose violations of social distancing requirements worry public health officials, were of all different stripes. They included hordes of out-of-towners who defied pleas from Gov. Phil Murphy to stay away from the Shore, because of a lack of medical resources here.

Yet Lakewood residents get special mention for transgressions in their densely populated town of 103,000.

"(Lakewood) is the fastest growing community in the state. This is no time to start crossing wires and blaming people and blaming communities," Murphy said at a press conference on Monday. "There's overwhelming compliance. If you just took snapshots of the streets of Lakewood right now, you'd see a pretty empty reality."

On Monday afternoon, streets in Lakewood were quiet and few people could be seen outside when a reporter visited them.

Most of the businesses on Clifton Avenue in the downtown shopping district remained shuttered, although Bagel Nosh appeared to be doing a brisk takeout business, with pickups happening in the parking lot at the rear of the store.

"There's a narrative that Lakewood is up and running, that the people of Lakewood are all getting together and mingling with each other. And that's just simply not true," said Avi Schnall, state director for Agudath Israel, an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group. "All the schools are closed. All the synagogues are closed. People aren't going shopping — they're going to the grocery stores. People are listening to the rules."

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It's true that Lakewood dwarfs the rest of Ocean County's cases of coronavirus. As of Monday, there were 399 cases in Lakewood, about 3.88 cases for every 1,000 people, the highest per capita rate in the county.

But the increased numbers were expected to be higher "in our urban areas that have people living in closer proximity to others," said Brian Lippai, a spokesman for the Ocean County Health Department.

"Density is the enemy here," said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, referring to a coronavirus hotspot in the town of New Rochelle, New York, where a synagogue was linked to dozens of cases.

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Eleven states' governors have exempted religious services from their stay-at-home orders. In New Jersey, Murphy's order exempts anyone "leaving the home for an educational, religious or political reason" but also prohibits gatherings of any kind.

Public health officials in New Jersey haven't pinpointed any coronavirus hot spots in Lakewood; in other words, they haven't singled out any particular neighborhood or community. But some observers have decided on their own where the problem lies.

"I live in Howell and have stopped going to my stores in fear of contracting the COVID-19 virus because this community shops in my town and are always in large numbers," one woman wrote in a letter to the Asbury Park Press.

And over the weekend, an Ocean County deputy fire marshal was placed under investigation after calling Lakewood a "--hole" and its residents "trash" and "dirty ones" in a Facebook post.

Even though Murphy didn't specifically name religious services in his order, numerous religious groups and organizations — including the Diocese of Trenton and rabbis overseeing all synagogues in Lakewood — preemptively canceled religious services despite the exemptions in Murphy's order.

"This is an unprecedented situation," doctors and religious leaders said on an automated phone call, sent to the town's entire Jewish community on March 13. "We beg you to prevent all and any congregating.

"Only isolating will prevent greater catastrophe from unfolding."

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The coronavirus crisis comes at a usually busy and festive time in the Orthodox Jewish community.

The weeks before Passover are considered the height of a busy wedding season in the Orthodox Jewish culture, as Jewish law decrees a 49-day moratorium on weddings beginning on Passover, or Pesach, the first night of which is scheduled for April 8.

Weddings are religious ceremonies and are required to have a quorum of at least 10 Orthodox Jewish men in attendance, also known as a minyan.

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Passover itself is a holiday in which large extended families, neighbors and friends gather to share a seder meal. Traditionally, Orthodox Jews gather en masse to burn leavened bread the day before Passover begins.

But all of those activities were ordered canceled by a coalition of rabbis representing various Orthodox Jewish organizations — including the Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel and the Lakewood Vaad.

"We've gone above what the government is requiring," Schnall said.

Similar discussions around religious gatherings and coronavirus are happening across the country. A pastor in Florida was arrested for violating social distancing rules after hosting two large services at his Tampa Bay church.

And in Louisiana, hundreds of worshipers attended services less than 24 hours after New Orleans police dispersed a funeral there. Some states placed no restrictions on religious institutions.

Indeed, while millions of people across the world tuned into online church services on Sunday, clerics of all different faiths insisted on keeping their doors open, sometimes defying the warning of public health officials, the Guardian reported.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to accurately note 70 incidents since Murphy's executive order went into effect.

Mike Davis has spent the last decade covering New Jersey local news, marijuana legalization, transportation and basically whatever else is happening. Contact him at mdavis@gannettnj.com or @byMikeDavis on Twitter.