(JTA) – Reports of a large wedding planned for last week in the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, were met with fury over the weekend. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo even issued a special order blocking the event at which 10,000 guests were expected, which was later curtailed to include family only. 

So when a Twitter account with the handle @SatmarStrong posted a video of a large wedding with thousands of people not wearing masks, it quickly racked up thousands of views and dozens of retweets. Except it wasn’t real. The video was taken at the wedding of Satmar Grand Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum’s grandson in 2006, according to Abby Stein, a transgender activist, and Meyer Labin, a writer and translator. Both were at the wedding, they said, and called out the tweet for spreading disinformation.

The @SatmarStrong Twitter account was created this month and had only 19 followers as of Oct. 20. Multiple users said they would report the tweet for containing lies, and it was later deleted. The account has no other tweets. The tweet, and the suggestion that Orthodox Jews were continuing to flout public health recommendations during the pandemic, also struck a nerve with Orthodox Jews who feel targeted because of upticks in COVID-19 cases in several Orthodox neighborhoods in New York City. Incidents of assaults and verbal attacks on Orthodox Jews have increased in recent weeks as some blamed Orthodox Jews for the city’s increasing case numbers. 

Main Photo: An anonymous Twitter account posted a video of a large Satmar wedding this week — but the wedding happened in 2006. (Screenshot from Twitter)